Insights
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
Become A Leader People Want To Work For: 5 Key Traits
Are you a great leader? There are five key traits to a great leader: 1. Vision 2. Passion 3. Decision Making Abilities 4. Team Building Skills 5. Character Key Trait #1: You must have a [...]
Counter Offer — Just Don’t Take It!
Counteroffer - Road to Career Ruin Picture this scenario: After working several years for your current company, you feel your job has become stagnant. The working conditions have declined, or were never what you expected, [...]
Effective Delegation in Three Simple Steps
Effective Delegation in Three Simple Steps Delegation isn’t a do-it and forget-it action. “Very rarely can you have one conversation and hand somebody a project, and then boom, it magically appears exactly as you expected,” [...]
“Plan A” For Growing Future Leaders
"Plan A" For Growing Future Leaders: A Five Step Process While resource constraints are one challenge most nonprofits face, the biggest obstacle to improved leadership development may be the behavior of leaders. Many nonprofit leaders [...]
Seven Traits of Great Leaders
Seven Traits of Great Leaders Great leaders identify, cultivate, and inspire enthusiastic followers. Some people are successful but are not leaders. They work best on their own and enrich themselves. Great leaders enlist the cooperation, [...]
5 Hiring Lessons From March Madness
Evaluate candidates using these basketball analogies: Initial Cuts: Teams are cut form the tournament because of their record. When screening applicants, hold the same philosophy. We advise our clients to have one or two deal breakers [...]