Our Insights Blog
Find A Job You Love This Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day to celebrate love and romance, but this year why not take it a step further and find a job you love? Finding a job you’re passionate about and [...]
Pay Transparency at Nonprofits
On January 1st, California and Washington joined Colorado and New York City in enacting pay transparency laws. There will be others to follow (New York State’s law is awaiting the governor’s signature). Even with [...]
Hiring the Best Talent: 5 Strategies
Hiring the best talent is one of the most critical aspects for leaders building the most competitive and compelling teams! At the same time, boards and search committees are wrestling with the external environment; [...]
Stand Out in Your Job Search During the Holidays
It’s that time of year when everyone runs around insanely busy with all the holiday preparations, parties, end-of-the-year planning, and vacations. So, should you bother looking for a job right now? Yes, you should [...]
Economic Reality Setting in as Recruitment Challenges Grow
by Robert Driver I'd like to share a few thoughts regarding challenges in the non-profit marketplace. Inflation rates by month in 2021 and 2022. With the welcome news last week that inflation [...]
Meri-Margaret Deoudes is appointed as Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at the Parkinson’s Foundation
The Batten Group was proud to partner with the Parkinson's Foundation in its search for a Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Congratulations to Meri-Margaret Deoudes on her appointment. The Parkinson’s Foundation announced [...]
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Appoints Colleen Coppla as Chief Development Officer
The Batten Group was proud to partner with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in its search for a Chief Development Officer. Congratulations to Colleen Coppla on her appointment. Colleen will oversee all [...]
New Hire Onboarding Checklist
Far more than a “new hire orientation” where new employees are briefed on benefits and sent on their way, an onboarding program is a comprehensive way to get new hires fully immersed and ready [...]
People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating?
People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating? Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in [...]
Compensation Best Practices
Compensation Best Practices Payscale.com surveyed 7,100 HR professionals and business leaders for the 2018 Compensation Best Practices Report. Read this report to understand how compensation and pay philosophy can affect hiring in 2019. [...]
The Cost of a Bad Hire — It’s More Than You Think
The True Cost of a Bad Hire -- It's More Than You Think When you align with the right employee, it adds tremendous value to your organization. Unfortunately, when you hire the wrong [...]
How to Conduct Better Interviews
Interviewing is a two-way street. Both the organization and the candidate need to be prepared to make a good impression. Let's look at how to conduct better interviews. For the Organization: An interview is [...]
Learn from Amazon’s Culture of Failure
Mistakes are where learning comes from… and learning is a key tool for growth. The business world loves talking about Amazon.com’s culture of embracing mistakes. Being totally cool with failure is a key element [...]
Does Your Office Scare Away Top Talent?
Perhaps you've experienced a really great phone interview with a top performer that you just knew you were going to get to come join your organization, only to find out after the final interview and [...]
Retain Champions! 3 Keys to Keep Top Non-Profit Talent
Re-examine your recruitment strategy Sometimes the key to retaining is having a good fit in the first place. Avoid the square peg round hole syndrome by partnering with professionals that know your specific nonprofit space. [...]
Are You Paid What You Are Worth? Non-Profit Compensation Statistics
Looking to find out what Executive Directors and CEOs of top non-profits earn? You’ve come to the right place. The Batten Group places non-profit executives in positions all over the United States. Typically, those in [...]
4 Critical Compensation Parameters Non-Profits Must Know in 2017
Maintain an Independent Compensation Committee on the Board Running a large non-profit is complex. Due to that complexity, The Batten Group, believes you have to pay fair market value in order to get the best [...]
7 Key Drivers of Sustainability in Non-Profits
Money! Without money, there is no mission and there is no team. Fundraising and development have to be run by the best and the brightest team members. Fundraising activities should also be viewed as a [...]
The Best Leadership Advice I Ever Received for Non-Profits
I’ve collected a lot of wisdom over the decades spent in executive leadership for non-profits and now near a decade in placing high-level talent for executive positions in non-profits. One of the best pieces of [...]
3 Technology Platforms Non-Profits Need For The Future
Peer to Peer (P2P) Digital Fundraising Platforms If non-profits want to maximize the impact of their very best constituents and fundraising teams, they must enable them with their own fundraising microsite. These landing page websites [...]
Making the Right Hire: Assessing a Candidate’s Fit With Your Organization
The process of ensuring that a candidate will be a good cultural fit for your organization can be roughly divided into three steps. Ideally, the first two steps should be completed before you even start [...]
9 Ways to Improve Your Hiring Process
One of the most important ongoing tasks you'll have as a business leader is hiring. It's not easy, it's a time-consuming process with monetary and reputational consequences if you make a bad hire. Taking the [...]
3 Ways to Perform Better Under Pressure
How to Prepare Yourself to Give the Performance of Your Life It's a Mental Game -- What separates good athletes from extraordinary athletes is often their ability to perform in high pressure situations. "The key difference [...]
Mistakes aren’t the issue. What you do with them is.
We ask this question to every candidate we are vetting for our clients: "Tell me about a time when you made a big mistake." Then we wait to see what they say. True, confident leaders [...]
How to Lose Your Best Employees in 10 Easy Steps
What could be more essential to organizational success and the bottom line than talent? Yet many of the people in our employ continue to be marginalized and neglected, oftent taking a backseat to the various [...]