It's Hard to Attract Talent, But It's Even Harder to Retain It

As a long time member of the AI community, I've seen many companies struggle to retain their employees. It's a problem that plagues every industry, and it's one that we've been working hard to solve at GPT-Research. We've been able to achieve a 0% churn rate, and we're proud of that. But how did we do it? What makes our employees stay? In this blog post, I'll share some of the things we've learned along the way.

Hire the Right People

We've found that the best way to retain employees is to hire the right people in the first place. We look for people who are passionate about AI, and who are excited to work on cutting-edge research.

We also look for people who are excited to work with others, and who are excited to learn from others. We've found that these people are the ones who are most likely to stay with us for the long haul.

Often we find that many applicants are not a good fit for our company. They may have the credentials, but they lack the ability to work well with others.

Our company is a research organization first, and a business second. We are not a startup, and we are not a corporation. This unique structure demands applicants who are willing to work with others, and who are willing to learn from others.

Give Employees the Freedom to Work on What They Want

We may be working on the future, but that doesn't mean that we know what the future will look like. We don't know what the next big thing will be, and we don't know what the next big breakthrough will be.

No one at GPT-Research is forced to work on a project that they don't want to work on. We give our employees the freedom to work on what they want, and we give them the freedom to work on what they are passionate about.

This freedom allows us as a organization to truly embrace a multi-disciplinary approach to research. From NLP, to computer vision, to robotics, to reinforcement learning, we have a diverse set of researchers working on what they are passionate about.

We Invest in Talent Early On

We recently launched our undergraduate research program, which provides opportunities for students to work alongside industry-leading researchers here at GPT-Research. Our first batch of students have already begun their research, and we're excited to see what they come up with.

Some critics have said that this program is a waste of time, and that we should be focusing on hiring more experienced researchers. But we disagree. We believe that investing in talent early on is the best way to ensure that we have a strong pipeline of talent for the future.

Our undergraduate research program is not a "summer internship". It's a year-long program, and it's designed to give students the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research alongside industry-leading researchers. We don't expect our students to produce any results during their time here, but we do expect them to learn a lot.

I guarantee that our students will learn more in one year here than they would in four years at any university. There's no other College or University in the world that offers the kind of research opportunities that we offer here at GPT-Research. Our program is also 100% free, and we even provide a stipend to cover living expenses.

What do we get in return? A secure pipeline of talent for the future. While other companies are struggling to find talent, we have begun to build a pipeline of talent that will ensure our success for years to come.

Ethics Really Matter

A lot of our researchers come from big tech companies. It's not common to see Ex-Meta or Ex-Google employees here at GPT-Research. But why do they leave? Why do they leave the big tech companies to come work for us?

The answer is simple: ethics. As a research organization, we are committed to ethical research. Our research is public, and it's open source. We don't hide anything from the public, and we don't hide anything from our employees.

Our dedication to ethics is one of the main reasons why our employees stay with us. They know that they are working on something that will have a positive impact on the world.

The Real Reason Why Our Employees Stay

Ok... so what's the real reason why our employees stay? It's simple: we treat them like human beings. We don't treat them like cogs in a machine, and we don't treat them like numbers on a spreadsheet.

That and we pay them a lot of money. Our employees are paid well above market rate (even by AI research standards), and they are given generous stock options. We also provide them with a lot of perks, including free food, free housing, and free transportation.

A big shoutout to our early investors, who have made all of this possible. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are today. We are eternally grateful for their support, and we look forward to working with them for many years to come.

The Takeaway

It's concering to see so many fellow AI companies struggle to succeed, and it's even more concerning to see so many talented researchers leave the field. Often there is an over emphasis placed on technical skills - but technical skills are not enough. You need to have the right people, and you need to treat them well.

Our 0% churn rate is not a mistake, but rather a calculated result based on years of fine-tuning our hiring process. We've learned a lot along the way, and we're excited to share our learnings with the world, both in AI and in operations.