In his Mar. 7th blog post, Ken Makovsky, CEO of Makovsky, points out how key a fulfilling culture is to a company’s success.

Ken MakovskyKen Makovsky

Makovsky references data from Glassdoor, a company review website, which analyzed 5,000 resumes of employees who changed jobs. The results showed that company culture is top motivation to stay at a job. Salary came in second and third was the ability to move up to positions of higher authority.

Employee surveys taken at his own firm back up the study, showing salary is not the main reason for a job switch. The main impetus is a lack of challenge at the current position.

NY Times article by Ayelet Fishbach

“When companies lack an atmosphere where each person feels treated with respect and courtesy, employees don’t give their all, turnover increases, and company performance suffers,” Makovsky writes.

Makovsky linked to an article in The New York Times in January by Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, on why employees leave jobs.

Fishbach notes that behavioral science shows “that people care about the present mainly in the present.”

As a result, when someone goes job hunting, forgotten is the present self which values interesting work with likeable co-workers, according to Fishbach.

She compares this to someone who signs up for a workout class, choosing the one that will eventually give the best health benefits, but is not enjoyable in the moment and is soon abandoned.

Fishbach’s advice is to choose a career or pursuit that is enjoyable in the present, do things that make you happy at work and focus on the positive side of your job.