You may not realize it, but when it comes to employee loyalty the rules have changed. You know how hard it's always been to attract and retain top talent, even when you could offer a fair salary and a reasonable working environment. Now it's becoming even tougher to find talented employees.

In the face of a shrinking labor pool, nonprofits have to compete with organizations from every sector. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age and the generations taking their place bring a different set of expectations to the workplace. Younger employees — and even many mature workers these days — are likely to jump ship at the drop of a hat. And they aren't necessarily jumping for more money.

Today's employees are also looking for the type of environment that makes them jump out of bed in the morning excited about going to work. Often employees jump the fence to a new job simply because the pastures appear greener, even if that green isn't necessarily lining their wallets.

If your organization has the luxury of a big payroll budget, you might be able to rest easy. But even if your resources are limited (and whose aren't?), there are still things you can do to retain your best employees...the people I call "keepers."

And believe me, it's critical for you to retain your best employees. Every time a great employee leaves, you have to shell out the cost of rehiring and retraining his or her replacement — a cost that studies have shown ranges from 70 percent to 200 percent of that person's annual salary. You also lose that employee's institutional memory, another great asset for your organization.

Clearly, then, combating "greener pasture" syndrome must be a top priority for today's nonprofit leaders. And while it may be self-evident, the best approach is to make your pasture the greenest. Ultimately, that means becoming a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization (VEO), an organization with a culture that allows that elusive sense of employee ownership to flourish. In the short run, however, it means making your organization a place that bright and talented people truly want to be — and "lip service" alone isn't enough. You can trumpet your organization's mission all over your organizational letterhead and literature, Web site, and office walls, but if you're not willing to back it up through the day-to-day realities of the workplace, your employees will quickly realize the truth and begin to get restless.

Which leads us to the "million-dollar" questions: What are the secrets that will help you keep your employees engaged and productive? And how can you do it without breaking the bank? To help you find the answers to these questions, here are fifteen easy-to-plant (and inexpensive!) "seeds" that will help your pasture become the greenest it can possibly be.

Seed #1: Don't misrepresent your culture. Engaging with your employees starts the first time you interview them. What do you say to your new hires about the organization? Is it really an accurate representation of how your organization works? Do you tell them about exciting opportunities only to hold them back from new assignments until they have "paid their dues"?

One organization I know of learned this lesson the hard way. They welcomed twelve new hires whose values they felt matched those of the organization. After only two years, however, all twelve of the hires had left, citing the same reason: The values the leaders said they stood for were not actually upheld. The agency could talk the talk, but it couldn't walk the walk.

Now, if your culture isn't quite where you'd like it to be, simply tell your new hires about the type of organization you are striving to become, tell them how you are going to get there, and let them know how they can help. They'll find your honesty refreshing, and it will help them get off to a great start.

Seed #2: Learn the rules of engagement. Bored employees are neither happy nor productive. To keep your employees engaged and satisfied, present them with challenging assignments and provide them with opportunities to grow and develop. Not surprisingly, employees appreciate it when their managers take an interest in their future inside and outside the organization. A great way to do that is by providing opportunities for employees to improve on their skills or to learn a new skill they can use in their everyday jobs. Either practice provides you with an opportunity to create a well-rounded, productive employee.

Seed #3: Cross-pollinate your culture by embracing diversity. It takes a lot of different influences — diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, education, work experience, and so forth — to make your pasture the greenest. A diverse workforce creates an energy that rarely exists in a more homogeneous environment. Organizations that bring together a diverse group of people to get the job done are often more creative and, frankly, more fun. Accordingly, leaders and managers need to encourage the involvement of all team members, who in turn need to feel comfortable about offering suggestions and challenging ideas or practices. By hiring employees from all walks of life, you'll create an environment where ideas are more likely to flow freely. Learn how to use those ideas to improve your organization and you'll create an environment in which your best employees are happy to stay.

Seed #4: Give praise where praise is due. If someone does a great job, let him or her know it. It's that simple. And then let the employee's co-workers know. Recognizing a job well done isn't an expensive proposition, and it will mean the world to the employee.

A good way to provide praise on a regular basis is to create an employee-recognition program. You might give managers the authority to reward their employees on the spot — say, with a gift certificate or a floating holiday. That way, talented employees not only get to enjoy some of the rewards of their efforts, they also are reminded that what they're doing truly matters.

Seed #5: Get creative with benefits. You don't have to provide your employees with onsite medical care and state-of-the-art fitness centers. In fact, you probably can't. But do realize your employees are looking at benefits other than those that meet the norm — health insurance, paid vacation and sick leave, and a 401(k) — when considering the elusive "happiness" factor. It's up to you to think outside the box and figure out the benefits that will...well, benefit your employees the most.

Seed #6: Be aware of the changing needs of your employees. Keep in mind that as your employees progress in life their needs change. After having a child, an employee may want to travel less than before her child was born. Similarly, as your baby boomer employees get older, so do their parents. Be understanding when they need to take time off to take care of the health needs of Mom or Dad, and never give them a hard time when they need to attend to their own health issues. By understanding your employees' changing needs, you show sensitivity to what's going on in their lives and demonstrate that you see them as people, not just as cogs in a machine. Not only will that help create loyalty among your employees, it will contribute stability to their personal lives — which means that when they are at work, they can focus on getting the job done.

Seed #7: Realize that great employees thrive under great leaders. Your employees won't leave you for that greener pasture unless you drive them to it. The buck starts and stops with the people running the show. In fact, it's commonly said that employees don't quit their job, they quit their manager. Employees of great leaders will go to the ends of the earth to do a good job for them. The flip side is that employees working under poor leadership will simply get up and go. The lesson? Pay attention to your frontline managers. Keep a close eye on their relationships with employees and get rid of bad managers when necessary.

Seed #8: Conduct "stay" interviews regularly. Most organizations conduct an "exit interview" when an employee resigns. It's a great way to gather feedback on working conditions and employee relations in your organization, but why wait until a good employee is lost? Instead, conduct regular "stay" interviews with high performers and use them as an opportunity to compliment their outstanding work. Great employees like to hear about what they can do to make the organization even better, and a "stay" interview is one way to inspire them to do more to take the organization to the next level.

Seed #9: Create the kind of environment where people can do their best work. Is your work environment restrictive and stifling or liberating and innovative? By allowing your employees to develop and implement their own ideas within your organization, you'll help to keep them passionate about their work. You should also make sure your employees have what they need on a basic level. Do they have the resources they need to do the job expected of them? The right computer programs to work efficiently? Nothing frustrates an employee more than not having the tools and resources he or she needs to get the job done.

Seed #10: Help employees to achieve work/life balance. In today's high-tech world, it is easy to set employees up so that they can work from home. Here's the problem: too many organizations do this and then expect employees to be "on call" 24/7. That's a mistake. Employees in today's workforce saw their parents give their lives to companies while missing soccer games, violin recitals, and family dinners, only to be laid off at age 55 without much hope for finding other employment. Not surprisingly, today's workers seem determined not to let that happen to them and actively seek out companies which make providing a true work/life balance a priority. Providing flexible hours or allowing your employees to work from home shows them you value the lives they have outside the office.

Seed #11: Insist that your employees take vacations. Several studies have shown that employees who take vacations are less stressed, lead a healthier lifestyle, and are at lower risk of heart disease. All of that means lower healthcare costs for you. Furthermore, employees who get away from the office on a regular basis are less likely to suffer burnout, a problem that harms productivity levels. If it isn't possible for employees to take a full week or two off, encourage them to take shorter, more frequent vacations. And always encourage your employees to leave their laptops and work-related papers at the office. If they are able to completely disengage while away, they're more likely to come back with renewed spirits — which, in turn, will help energize the people around them.

Seed #12: Create an environment of trust between employer and employee. Employees are happier and work harder when they feel they can trust their leaders. And they typically decide which leader they can trust based on how he or she treats their fellow employees, vendors, and constituents. As a leader, do you treat all with whom you come into contact with respect? Do you behave ethically and hold others accountable for their actions? When you have to take tough action, do you follow the proper procedures and treat the person with dignity in the process?

In addition, remember that trust is a two-way street. Your employees need to feel you trust them as well. In the for-profit sector, corporations such as Chaparral Steel and Nucor Steel have opted to get rid of time clocks, while Best Buy has increased productivity at its headquarters by allowing some employees to make their own hours rather than work the standard nine-to-five shift. By monitoring employees less, the focus for both employees and managers is placed on the work at hand. And because employees in these companies feel trusted and appreciated, they're more likely to do a great job to show their gratitude.

Seed #13: Rid your pasture of weeds. The weeds in your figurative pasture are those poor performers and negative employees who stifle the good attitudes and high performance of their fellow employees. If you're not pulling out your weeds, then it's likely their counterparts won't want to keep working with them. Any environment where employees are not held accountable for their actions, whether they're positive or negative, can create a poor working environment. The greenest pastures have relatively few weeds, so keep that in mind when you're tending to yours.

Seed #14: Use internship and mentoring programs to grow and nurture new talent. Such programs enable promising prospects and employees to learn what an organization's culture is all about while also helping them to develop their own professional skills. In addition, they are a win-win situation for an organization in that they allow managers and leaders to evaluate new talent without having to make a long-term commitment to the prospect or employee in question.

Seed #15: Take a seasonal approach to showing employees you care. Be creative. In summer, consider giving half-days off on Friday, or give a half-day off before an employee's vacation to help him or her minimize the stress of leaving town. At the holidays, bring in gift wrappers or give employees a day off to take care of their seasonal shopping. Even something as simple as providing fresh fruit or flowers for the office can make a difference. These ideas aren't expensive, and they go a long way toward showing employees that you care.

Striving to keep employees happy and engaged is not just a nice thing to do; it's the right thing to do if you want your organization to be successful. It's not just a matter of trying to retain people for retention's sake to avoid the high cost of recruitment. Engaged employees tend to be more creative, more productive, and more motivated than employees who are not engaged. And not only will they be more likely to stay, they'll be more committed to their jobs and to the success of your organization. Good luck!