Despite the conventional wisdom, free food and other lavish perks don’t always equal employee retention. In fact, workers at several tech giants are likely to bolt after just a year on the job. A report by PayScale ranks Amazon’s retention rate as the second-lowest of the companies identified as having difficulty keeping employees. Workers at the online retailer had a median tenure of just one year. Google and e-learning provider Mosaic kept employees for a median of 1.1 years. Workers at Brightpoint North America stayed for 1.3 years, while storage-device maker Sandisk had a 1.5-year retention rate. Compare these numbers to the country’s wider performance: Overall, employees tend stay in one place for 3.68 years. Obviously, this is bad news for tech companies, who are already having trouble finding and keeping the best technical talent. As the economy improves, PayScale Economist Katie Bardaro expects the number of jobs to increase nationally. “This creates options for people with in-demand skills, and the chance that top performers will jump ship increases,” she said in a statement. She points to pay, work environment and vacation policies as prime reasons people change jobs. So who are the companies hanging onto their employees? Workers at local Internet, phone and mobile company CenturyLink stay there for a median of 10 years. Those at IT test equipment maker Agilent remain for 7.5 years, while broadband provider Frontier keeps employees for about 7.3 years. A loyal workforce, however, doesn’t necessarily translate into high job satisfaction. For example, Eastman Kodak has a retention rate of some 20 years, but only 45 percent of its employees report high job satisfaction. Quite a disconnect. Kodak’s median pay isn’t in the six-figure range as you’d find at a Google or Sandisk, and it’s fair to assume the old-line company doesn’t offer perks like free food. Maybe there is something to be said about locating your company in an outlying city like Kodak’s home of Rochester, N.Y., where you’re among the largest employers and may not face much competition for workers. Charts: PayScale