What does it take to be considered one of the best companies that people want to work for?  You might think pay, you are wrong. Location, you are wrong, Flex hours,wrong again. So what is it that best companies do to be labeled a better place to work than the competition?

A USAToday article states: "When you inform employees on what you're doing vs. keeping them in the dark, they can understand why you've made the decisions that you've made," says Rob Salmon, NetApp executive vice president of worldwide field operations.

While management attributes such as great communication skills make a big difference, pay factors in as well.

Employees do "mental arithmetic" on areas such as pay, benefits and company culture to figure out "how much am I putting into this and what am I getting in return?" says Pete Foley, North American employee research leader at consulting firm Mercer. "If pay is way out of line (with industry norms), it can be de-motivating," he says. "But pay really hasn't been a big driver of employee motivation."

A new Mercer global analysis found that non-financial factors usual play a more prominent role in influencing employee motivation and engagement.

In the networked world three things are becoming more important than ever for employees. These three things are trust, pride and camaraderie. These three things overshadow pay.

Most workers say that being treated with respect is most important, followed by work/life balance, type of work, quality of co-workers and quality of leadership. For U.S. respondents, pay ranks below all of those items.

Firms that don't understand the importance of those hard-to-quantify benefits risk losing the employees they've invested in, Foley says. "That turnover can be very expensive," he says. "You spend time and money bringing someone on board."

Shawn Boyer, CEO of job website Snagajob, which earlier this month won the top Great Place to Work slot for small companies, says he pays competitively and gives rewards for those who outperform, but "the real difference-maker is the culture."

 Managers need to focus daily on employee satisfaction. "You've got to match up whatever perk you are offering with how you're really living out the culture every day — otherwise it's pretty hollow.

In the networked world three things are becoming more important than ever before for employees. These three things are trust, pride and camaraderie. These three things overshadow pay and are heavily influenced by culture, communications and leadership.  To win in the 21st Century every organization must focus on never ending improvement of issues that influence the three things important to people, trust, pride and camaraderie.  By the way these three things also influence customers, people.