Westchester Magazine recently named Morgan Stanley one of its top-10 places to work in its first-ever "Best Places to Work" survey. Companies appearing on the list were not ranked further. The results appeared in the June issue.

"So what'd we learn? A good company is — oh no, we don't want to give it all away. But what we will divulge is that happy employees don't hesitate to brag about their employer," the editors wrote. "When they go out, and someone asks them what they do, the first thing they say is, 'I work at '(fill in the blank)' and they're really proud when they say it."

The magazine spoke to employees at the Firm's Purchase, New York campus.

The panel of experts consulted included:

• Michael Feiner, a professor of management at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business
• Vincent J. Calluzzo, dean of the Hagan School of Business at Iona College
• Frances J. Milliken, a professor of management at the NYU Stern School of Business

Six qualities that the experts saw as contributing to a good workplace included:

• A Good Relationship with the Boss
"People join good companies and leave bad managers," Feiner says.
• Feedback
"Feedback is way up there in terms of importance," Feiner notes. Employees, our experts say, like to know where they stand. "Bosses don't want to de-motivate their employees by giving them less than stellar feedback, but the irony is, that by not giving true feedback, bosses actually retard growth in employee performance."
• Training and Opportunities for Growth
"Employees crave opportunities to get recognized," Calluzzo says.
• Benefits
"Things that make employees' lives outside of work better, like mortgage assistance and travel expenses, are quite important these days," Milliken says, "as is, of course, good health insurance."
• Flexible Work Hours
"Flexible hours are a big deal, especially for working moms with families, and to a growing extent, working dads," Feiner says.
• Pay
A good salary is important, but, "surprisingly, pay is not as important a factor in making workers happy as many bosses think," says professor Feiner. "Employees focus on this as a surrogate for their happiness when other things aren’t impressing them." Calluzzo agrees that it's "not just the money" that matters to workers.