After completing a successful public offering, Google now faces a potential problem: about 60% of its 1,900 employees now have over US$1 million in share options, with some longer-term employees (400-500 of them) having in excess of $5 million worth of shares. The problem Google has to overcome is keeping these newly wealthy staff members from leaving the company.

Giving employees such wealth means they may choose to take their life in a different direction and away from the company, e.g., going back into education, working for themselves, or taking early retirement. Others may leave because their major reason for working–creating wealth and a healthy nest-egg for retirement–has been completed and they are free to do what they like.

Google isn’t your average company, though, and it already offers great employee perks that it has vowed to make even better. The upside to staying is that Google shares have not reached their peak yet according to Morgan Stanley; that peak will come within months, giving employees who are considering leaving a reason to stay.