Here's what you can do: Hold and express sincere trust in and appreciation of your employees.

Sincere trust and appreciation doesn't make my retirement any closer. Show your appreciation with cash.

Do both?

The comment said “employees”, not “employers” :)

I swear at some of these companies it is going to take engineering managers going on strike before corporate actually respects that we know how to run effective teams for the good of the business.

You get what you measure, and the only thing they know how to measure is negative outcomes.

You can't prove that giving me an extra 5k made me stay long enough to pay it back at >= our revenue targets.

The semi-healthy version I see play out is when people who want to be better use the loss of a customer or a coworker as fodder for pushing their agenda. Essentially it's one class of teachable moment. People learn from pain when nothing else works, and you can amplify or dull that sense of pain.