If, by the time you are sitting down to have your leisurely cup of tea and your manager chat, you just then realize you lost a bunch of good people recently it's probably too late. Obviously people are talking and planning their own exits.
When you hire someone and make promises to them to make them happy you usually can deliver on that promise and make them happy. If people are heading for the door, you're doing it wrong. Start being honest with yourself.
I cringe at the idea that someone read the OP and thought "we've lost 50 people in 6 months, let's start being funny and hand out $25 gift cards to Best Buy". Yeah, that'll work.
At least at the big G, the haircuts aren't free. I wonder why people keep thinking that. It's an independent business which drives up and parks there. The same thing goes for the oil change/car detailing folks, dry cleaning, and all sorts of other things.
It can; I've seen it happen. Basically when you're in a bad job but you're being paid well the quitting motions tend to get overridden by golden handcuffs.
