At The Standard, a People Analytics Specialist plays a critical role in bridging the gap between human resources, business operations, and data-driven decision-making. As a leading provider of financial protection products—including group disability, life, dental, and vision insurance—The Standard relies heavily on analytical talent to optimize both its internal workforce and its external service delivery. In this position, you will not only analyze workforce trends, retention, and talent acquisition metrics, but you will also frequently collaborate with benefits and claims departments to drive operational efficiency.

This role is highly impactful because it directly influences how the company structures its teams, manages employee performance, and handles complex claims pipelines. Because The Standard operates in a highly regulated insurance and financial services landscape, the workforce data you analyze is complex and subject to shifting legal and operational demands. Your insights will help senior leadership make strategic decisions regarding staffing, training, and organizational design, making this a highly visible role with significant business-wide influence.

Candidates entering this role can expect to work on diverse problem spaces, from modeling employee attrition to identifying bottlenecks in claims processing. It requires a unique blend of quantitative expertise, business acumen, and the communication skills necessary to translate complex data points into actionable strategies for non-technical stakeholders.

Preparing for the specific question patterns at The Standard will help you structure your responses effectively. The following questions are representative of what candidates face during the interview process, compiled from real reported interview experiences across HR, analytical, and operational panels.

Behavioral & Situational

These questions evaluate your past experiences, work ethic, and how you navigate workplace challenges. The Standard heavily emphasizes behavioral-based interviewing to assess cultural fit and collaboration styles.

• Tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult stakeholder who disagreed with your analytical findings. How did you resolve the situation?
• Describe a situation where you had to manage multiple competing deadlines. What steps did you take to ensure all deliverables were met?

Success in the People Analytics Specialist interview process at The Standard requires a balanced preparation strategy. You must demonstrate both technical proficiency and a strong cultural alignment with the firm's collaborative, customer-centric values.

Role-Related Knowledge – You must show a deep understanding of HR metrics, data modeling, and business intelligence tools. Be prepared to discuss how you leverage tools like SQL, Excel, and Power BI to turn raw data into strategic insights.

Problem-Solving Ability – Interviewers will evaluate how you approach ambiguous business problems. You should practice breaking down complex scenarios, identifying key data requirements, and explaining your analytical methodology clearly.

Behavioral Excellence – Since The Standard relies heavily on behavioral questions, mastering the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is essential. Ensure your stories highlight personal accountability, collaboration, and structured problem-solving.

Industry Awareness – Having a foundational understanding of group insurance, disability claims, and employee benefits will set you apart. Understanding how workforce trends impact claims operations is highly valued by hiring managers.

The interview process at The Standard is structured, corporate, and generally described by candidates as straightforward and respectful. The company avoids overly convoluted multi-stage processes, preferring a streamlined approach that respects the candidate's time while thoroughly evaluating their skills.

You will begin with an initial HR screening, followed by a timed online assessment that evaluates your quantitative and written communication skills. If you pass this stage, you will move to a comprehensive panel interview with hiring managers and peer analysts. This panel focuses heavily on situational, behavioral, and technical competencies.

The visual timeline above outlines the standard progression from your initial contact to the final offer stage. Candidates should use this roadmap to pace their preparation, ensuring they focus on quantitative skills prior to the online assessment and shift to behavioral preparation before the panel interview. While the process is typically efficient, communication times can occasionally vary depending on the department's hiring volume.

To excel in your interviews for the People Analytics Specialist position, you must understand the specific competencies The Standard prioritizes.

Behavioral and Situational Judgment

The Standard places a premium on how you work with others and handle the day-to-day pressures of a corporate environment. Interviewers want to see that you are resilient, collaborative, and capable of handling difficult conversations with stakeholders.

Be ready to go over:

• Conflict resolution – How you manage disagreements regarding data interpretations or project priorities.
• Adaptability – Your ability to pivot when project requirements or company priorities change suddenly.
• Client focus – How you keep the end-user or employee experience in mind when designing analytical solutions.

Example scenarios:

• Managing a situation where a business leader wants to ignore data insights in favor of intuition.
• Handling an abrupt change in project scope right before a major presentation deadline.

Quantitative and Analytical Reasoning

Before meeting the final panel, you must prove your comfort with numbers and logical reasoning through the timed online assessment. This test ensures all incoming specialists possess the baseline quantitative capabilities required to manage complex datasets.

Be ready to go over:

• Data interpretation – Reading charts, identifying trends, and calculating percentages or ratios quickly.
• Written clarity – Synthesizing technical findings into a concise, professional written summary.
• Basic statistical concepts – Understanding averages, distributions, and correlations.

Advanced concepts (less common):

• Predictive modeling for employee turnover.
• Statistical significance testing in A/B testing for HR initiatives.

Domain Expertise & Claims Context

Because The Standard is an insurance and financial services firm, the People Analytics Specialist role often intersects with claims operations and benefits administration. Candidates who can connect workforce metrics to operational insurance metrics are highly competitive.

Be ready to go over:

• HR metrics framework – Deep familiarity with metrics like time-to-hire, turnover rates, cost-per-hire, and employee lifetime value.
• Claims and litigation awareness – Understanding how legal changes and claims volumes affect staffing needs.
• Data governance – Knowing how to handle sensitive, personally identifiable information (PII) securely.

Example scenarios:

• Designing a dashboard to help benefits managers track claims processing times against staffing levels.
• Analyzing how changes in employee benefits offerings impact overall corporate retention rates.

As a People Analytics Specialist at The Standard, your day-to-day work will balance technical execution with cross-functional collaboration. You will serve as the analytical engine for the HR and operational leadership teams.

Your primary responsibility will be to extract, clean, and analyze workforce data to identify trends and patterns. You will build and maintain automated dashboards that allow business leaders to self-serve their data needs. This involves working closely with IT and data engineering teams to ensure underlying data pipelines are accurate and secure.

In addition to technical maintenance, you will act as an internal consultant. You will partner with HR business partners, benefits managers, and claims leaders to understand their strategic questions, translate those questions into analytical projects, and present your findings in clear, non-technical business language. Your insights will directly support workforce planning, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and talent optimization strategies.