The Standard Reviews

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Company demonstrating clarity of vision and opportunities. Technology adoption and deployment is increasing and getting more frequent. Flexible work opportunities and a great downtown location.

Cons – Economy is still concerning. Management needs to continue to clarify the vision and drive change adoption. Performance management is key.

Advice to Senior Management – Drive and reward good performance. Recognize that you need to move out lower performers to really drive change and seize opportunities.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – - Great downtown location
- On all of the transit lines
- Some of the people left are great

Cons – - Management at the supervisory, middle and upper levels is, on the whole, incompetent and disconnected from the operations of the company.
- Promotion above the individual contributor level is far more weighted on who you know and not that you are particularly competent or accomplished in your field.
- The company is so management heavy that decisions can rarely be made in a reasonable amount of time
- The company has gone through a few rounds of layoffs and has had a high rate of employee attrition the last few years. Thanks to a few years of a weak economy and weak financial results, the company has been loath to replace individual contributor positions. This has left many employees with workloads that are completely unreasonable. The burnout is palpable.
- The technology at The Standard is years behind the times. The number of manual workarounds for functions as basic as simple reporting demonstrate how far behind the company is with basic technology.
- The culture of The Standard is incredibly passive aggressive and you can easily sink your career by making any suggestion or critical comment that runs contrary to a decision that was likely made by managers without a reasonable grasp of the systems or material in question.

Advice to Senior Management – - You need to have the fortitude to gut the many under-qualified managers and supervisors inhabiting your company, promote those with the competence and professionalism to restore some integrity to management and, in some cases, shell out the money to hire legitimate, proven professionals that can actually right the ship.
- Foster a culture where critical thought and substantive feedback earn employees the appreciation of management instead the current culture where competence can, in many cases, be considered a professional liability.
- Instead of the massive compensation increases like those given to upper management in 2012, give out some reasonable raises to your rank and file employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Allows flexible work hours, good work location in downtown Portland, Customer Service and Retirement Plans are better areas in the company to work in.

Cons – A lot of complaining/poor morale in the claims area. You have to pay for parking or a bus pass if you work downtown.

Advice to Senior Management – Few chances for advancement in the benefits area.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Some really great people at all levels.

Cons – Senior management is out of touch.

Advice to Senior Management – Involve your managers and employees; be transparent and self-aware; get a vision and strategy

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Good people, good benefits, fair location

Cons – Morale has been on the down slide for the last few years. Mid to upper management making poor decisions, big turn over lately

Advice to Senior Management – Pay attention to why the turnover, listen to employee's, toss the toxicity

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at The Standard full-time for more than a year

Pros – The Standard truly shows support for corporate values throughout the organization. It's not just talking the talk, every department walks the walk.

Cons – Lots of balls in the air in terms of process and standards, thus a recent reorganization.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on the talent you currently have in staff, you might be surprised by the hidden gems you can discover.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Long term focus, great history, new Sales VP who is willing to change things up, great distribution network potential, top ten performer

Cons – Tough to articulate and execute a strategy, non-competitive in many market segments, lack innovation in products, experiencing higher turnover and position reductions

Advice to Senior Management – Take risks before becoming irrelevant

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time

Pros – *Company has been very humane during recent layoffs, providing decent severance packages and outplacement services.
*Generous PTO policy.
*HQ is in a nice downtown location.
*Most employees are well educated and sincerely want to make the company successful.
*Claims department does a great job despite being understaffed and inundated.
*Claims are paid in a timely manner and using ethical standards.

Cons – *As many have said, company culture is passive-aggressive.
*People are labeled as having "poor attitudes" when they express a contrary opinion. Once branded, there is no salvaging your career.
*Conflict ("negativity") is discouraged, which means creativity and risk taking die. Workers keep their heads down to protect their jobs.
*H.R. is there to protect the company, not to help employees, and some H.R. staff appear annoyed when they have to deal with employee issues.
*Some leaders use fear as a management strategy. Without a safe environment for discussion and honest communication, morale and productivity plummet.
*There are constant reorgs in some departments, leading to lost productivity and lack of vision.
*Many leaders are not seen as trustworthy by their direct reports, and this is warranted.
*Company is slow to react to economic realities and changes in the business environment, and hasn't invested in needed technology infrastructure to support growth and change.
*Company invests in stupid ventures without doing their homework, while not investing in core business to stay competitive.
*Cronyism runs rampant - the best way to be promoted is to befriend someone in power.
*"Talent Management" is a joke. There is plenty of talent, but people are not encouraged to move around the company to learn new things. Smart people languish while managers hire and promote their buddies.
*Employees work long hours while some VPs arrive at 9 and leave at 4.

Advice to Senior Management – Get out of the ivory tower and actually walk around so you can meet/talk to employees on the front lines. This will only work if you make it safe for them to tell you what's really going on in the company without retaliation; otherwise they'll just tell you that everything is "fine." Hint: it's not. Quit hiring and promoting narcissistic bullies who don't "care about people" and only know how to manage up. Settle on a company strategy and have the balls to communicate your vision and invest wisely toward the goals you've set.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Standard has done a great job hiring smart, experienced and well-balanced people at the lower levels.

Cons – As the company is publicly traded we are always having to answer to the shareholders and the bottom line. What drives us isn't always about what is best for the company as a whole, but what is more profitable.

Advice to Senior Management – You have a smart, educated and experienced workforce, use them! Decisions are being made from the top, but the people who are making these decisions are so far removed from the things they are making decisions regarding, it is almost ridiculous when we hear what they have come up with. One problem I see that influences this is there are too many layers of middle management. A few layers of middle management needs to be done away with so people who are making process and procedural changes are working more closely with the people who are actually carrying out the work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at The Standard full-time for more than a year

Pros – You can get away with doing nothing.

Cons – No accountability, passive-aggressive, better to be nice than to be productive, software is all ancient and out of support.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit and get some people there with balls, especially David ??? the CIO!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company