Talk with employee and see what they think is a good motivation to stay. Not everyone wants to be an owner, some just want more money or recognition.
Worth understanding.
I work in software - have done since the 90's. I am not much of a coder, and have mostly worked in quality control - which means more than most people fathom. Programmers don't always have a clear concept of how the software really gets used. Frequently they don't even bother themselves with what it actually does. That sounds like hyperbole but it is not. The ability to compartmentalize and abstract the task to be completed is taught at the university level and they literally learn how to get the job done without understanding it.
In 2002, after the dotcom bubble had well and truly burst, i was unemployed along with half a million of my peers in the US, and about 20% of gas stations with pay-at-the-pump function were running code that, when i inserted my card, would crash and reboot. I cannot express to you the level of rage this inspired in me at the time. Particularly considering that it betrayed that someone just like me had been laid off, just like me, because management decided that they didn't need to pay someone to check things like that.
In 2012, with a great deal of trepidation, i made my first foray into managing a software quality team.
2013 was easily the worst year of my life. I let down several people, and identified a handful of people whom, if they died in my general vicinity, would require me to solidify a really good alibi. People whose graves i fully intend to desecrate. People who, if they asked me the time of day even now, may not escape unbloodied.
So yeah. Have a heart-to-heart. Find out what they truly aspire to. Make sure the ends are open. That job with the disaster management role - i really, truly, deeply cared about the work i was doing and the customers i was serving. And there are people i worked with there whom i mourn having let down. And a few people i worked with there who may yet suffer my wrath.
