Perk Place: The Benefits Offered by Google and Others May Be Grand, but They're All Business (Knowledge@Wharton)

So, how do good companies maintain top talent and continually attract the best? Yes, soaring stock prices can be helpful, but this article presents some other interesting examples and also points out the challenges, since not all perks are meaningful to everyone.

David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want, says far too many companies do not value employees -- and pay a price for treating them that way. "The key question in organizations is not the typical one -- how do you motivate people or engage people?" he explains. "It's how do you keep management from destroying motivation?"

Surveys of employees conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence, the Purchase, N.Y., firm that Sirota founded in 1972, have determined that when people enter an organization, their morale is high. But, in as little as six months, the level of morale can drop precipitously if employees feel unvalued and, in Sirota's words, are "treated like paper clips."

Sirota says morale will decline if management views employees as costs rather than assets, if they are treated disrespectfully and if they are poorly compensated in salary and benefits. "Google and other organizations like it are just the opposite of these things," Sirota says. "Perks, of course, are an important part of it.... Our research indicates that the more companies do this kind of thing, the higher the morale and the higher the performance [of employees]. This is really enlightened self-interest."