Nvidia's 3.7% Turnover: No Org Charts, 36 Direct Reports to the CEO

Nvidia's global employee turnover rate stands at 3.7%, against a technology industry average of 21.9% — and the company credits a structure with no org charts, 36 executives reporting directly to CEO Jensen Huang, and two company-wide days off every quarter.

The figures, shared by Nvidia HR director Febe Punsalan, who has spent 19 years at the Santa Clara-based company, show how the $5.65 trillion chipmaker retains staff while scaling headcount through the AI boom. In the U.K., 95% of Nvidia employees say it's a "great place to work," compared with a 54% average for U.K.-based organizations.

What keeps Nvidia's structure so flat?

Nvidia deliberately maintains fewer management layers than companies of comparable size. Huang has said he keeps the number of layers as low as possible; he currently has 36 direct reports, with leaders of strategically important projects often reporting straight to the CEO.

Punsalan describes the operating principle plainly: "the mission is always the boss." Rather than top-down directives, employees orient around a core objective.

"We start by listening. That's really embedded at Nvidia," Punsalan said. "We've got a very flat structure, with no org charts. We live by understanding what the mission is, what we need to drive towards, and then we go for it. I believe that's what makes Nvidia a great place to work."

Anyone from interns to seasoned engineers can submit ideas through a suggestion box. Program managers review every submission and, at minimum, discuss it in a one-on-one dialogue.

"It's not a ticketing system like you have in other big corporations; every suggestion is looked at and reviewed and has a response," Punsalan said.

Where did the quarterly shutdowns come from?

One employee suggestion became permanent policy. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Nvidia introduced "free days": each quarter, every employee worldwide gets two additional days off, and the whole company shuts down.

"When you come back to work, you're not returning with a full inbox because you took a vacation and everyone else was working. You're not expected to work at all," Punsalan said. "That came from employee feedback, from listening, and through ideas."

How does the money side work?

Nvidia lets workers buy company shares from their salary at a 15% market discount — a benefit that has made multimillionaires of its employees. The trade-off, according to some employees, is late nights and a persistent "pressure cooker" environment.

Punsalan does not dispute the intensity. "When you come to work for Nvidia, it's a challenging place, and it's challenging work," she said. "But it's meaningful work, and that resonates whether it's the U.S., EMEA, APAC or India. That's going to come with a lot of dedication."

Why no free lunch?

Nvidia has drawn criticism for being "frugal" next to competitors: it offers no free lunch or snacks. Punsalan argues the company prioritizes benefits that matter more than cafeteria perks — including a hybrid work program with no strict return-to-office mandates, at a time when rival tech firms have used campus amenities to keep workers on-site.

The benefits portfolio targets life stages rather than on-site stickiness. Beyond paternity and maternity leave, Nvidia:

• helps pay off student loans;
• provides support for aging parents;
• reimburses IVF and surrogacy expenses;
• runs support programs for neurodiverse employees and parents of neurodiverse children.

"Our focus is really on what's valued by employees," Punsalan said. "We do that through listening — it's not so much about the food."

How fast is Nvidia growing in Europe?

Europe is one of Nvidia's fastest-growing regions. The company ranks 14th on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For – Europe list, operates offices in 15 European countries, and its architecture powers 90% of the continent's AI factories. The largest GPU cluster in Europe will soon go live in the U.K. Nvidia recently hired a head of wellbeing for EMEA to adapt perks to local customs.

"Europe is hugely important to our business, and we're growing across all regions and functions," Punsalan said.

Nvidia has changed dramatically since Punsalan joined 19 years ago, when the company was known mainly for gaming GPUs. It now supplies the chips that train the most powerful AI models — and CEO Jensen Huang puts the chances of AI ending the world at "zero." Through it all, Punsalan says, the company has "always stayed true to our culture."

"We care and support our employees throughout the different stages of their lives," Punsalan said. "And by doing so, they can do their life's best work at Nvidia." As Nvidia keeps adding headcount across Europe and beyond, that listening-first model will be tested by the same scale that flattened the org charts of its peers.