Summarize this article in one sentence.
In the free marketplace, cash is king. If you're willing to pay your employees more than a competitor would, they'll be less likely to leave for other work. An added benefit of increasing your employees' pay is that it allows you to ask more of them — well-paid employees have an incentive to work harder and commit themselves to their job, while employees who are making relatively little won't usually have the same level of dedication or loyalty. If you don't have the cash to pay your employees more than the competition, be creative. For instance, offering company stock options or equity plans is a relatively low-cost way to increase the long-term earning potential of your employees. As an added benefit, these sorts of options give employees a real financial stake in the company — if they work hard and help the company do well, their stock value will go up and they'll make money. Employees like to feel like their hard work is being rewarded. As a manager or business owner, part of making sure your employees feel this way is compensating them fairly for their work, but another part is giving them the opportunity to achieve the non-tangible benefits of recognition and advancement. Reward exceptionally smart, resourceful, and hard-working employees by gradually increasing their responsibility and giving them more important titles. An employee who's advanced from an entry-level position to a manager role is much more likely to be loyal to your company than one who's done the same job for years in spite of her hard work.  It’s not enough to simply ‘’offer’’ the potential for advancement — it’s also important to make sure that employees understand how they can advance in your business. If you're having a hard  time communicating this to your employees, try inviting a career counselor into the workplace once or twice a year to discuss this with them. Try to promote from within your workforce, rather than recruiting outsiders into management roles. While this may sometimes be unavoidable, hiring an outsider to fill a management vacancy when there are qualified employees with years of experience who could conceivably do the job can give the impression that you don't care about your employees' accomplishments. If an employee's work is stressful, monotonous, or extremely difficult, different jobs with comparatively easy work loads will start to look very attractive. Never work your employees to the point of exhaustion — this is one of the easiest ways to cause your employees to start looking for other work en masse. In addition, it's also often financially inefficient: employees with very long or stressful jobs will require significantly higher pay levels to retain than employees with ordinary duties and hours. There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that working your employees extra-hard can actually cause their net productivity to plummet — even to below the level of productivity from a normal 40-hour week in some cases! Some research has found, for instance, that excessively long hours can cause employees to take longer to perform the same tasks as they normally would, deal poorly with problems requiring critical thinking or creativity, make more mistakes, and waste time engaging in recreational or personal activities at work. Increasingly, people looking for work don't just consider the salary being offered by a potential employer, but also the benefits provided. By offering affordable benefits like health insurance, dental insurance, 401K plans, and, as mentioned above, stock options, you can make a job at your company more appealing than one at a competitor's, decreasing employee turnover. Reviewing your benefits package is something your company should do regularly — at least once a year.  Be aware of the benefits your biggest competitors are offering their employees. If they start offering more generous benefits than you, they may be able to steal some of your best employees, so don’t let them get the jump on you! In the U.S., millions of employees depend on an employer's health care plan to make their medical care affordable. Offering a good employee health insurance plan can make a job with your company especially attractive, decreasing turnover and making it easier to hire. In addition, ensuring your employees have decent health coverage can be a wise investment in the long run — healthy employees are productive employees. To long-time employees, coworkers and bosses can function like something of a family, providing friendly relationships, conversation, and sometimes even emotional intimacy. Don't let your employees' jobs become a source of a source of boredom or dread for them. Instead, try to foster a warm, open environment at work. Employees should be comfortable talking, joking, and making outside-of-work plans with each other as long as it doesn't interfere with their work. If your employees seem "cold", standoffish, or emotionally distant, try sponsoring a fun workplace outing to lighten the mood. Going out for drinks, catching a movie, or playing sports after work can be a great way to bond with your employees and allow them to bond with each other, even if you can only do so once or twice a month. People tend to work hardest (and smartest) when they think their jobs matter. Though this is often forgotten by even the best managers, it's surprisingly intuitive. Consider this: who is likely to work harder — a mail room clerk with little responsibility or a heart surgeon with responsibility over other peoples' lives? Try to make an effort to give the employees with even the most minor jobs some sense of importance or responsibility. If they understand exactly how their work is essential to the business's success, they'll have added motivation to succeed in their jobs. Ironically, giving people added duties that increase their responsibility can actually make their jobs more attractive to them. However, if you do this, be open to the possibility of promotion or a raise in the future — employees don't want to deal with increased responsibilities without ever being rewarded for their work.
Pay more (or offer a path to a raise). Offer potential for advancement. Rebalance the work load. Offer competitive benefits. Encourage friendly employee relationships. Trust your employees with responsibility.