Through SunTrusts mission, Helping people and institutions prosper, the banks new strategic initiatives focus on becoming a trusted advisor to clientsa relationship that has never been more necessary and more difficult to achieve.

Mary Slaughter

CLO and SVP of Talent Management and Development

SunTrust Banks Inc.

Sometimes the shortest distance between two points isnt always a straight line. I know it defies the principles of geometry, and at first glance doesnt seem particularly efficient, but when it comes to human behavior, the most efficient solution often fails to deliver the desired level of effectiveness.

Having spent more than 20 years in the learning profession, one thing I know is that persuading adults to modify their behavior is not always driven by logic. Each of us has ingrained patterns of behaviorsome work well, others not so much, yet the old patterns persist until were convinced theres a better way.

The same concept applies at the organizational level. At SunTrust Banks, we began transforming our business three years agoa process that continues today. Change management experts will tell you that significant change can be a long and arduous roadand theyre right. The basis for such change takes courage and transparency, both of which exist in abundance at SunTrust.

To begin transforming the business, we developed three guiding principles:

  • operating as one team
  • putting our clients first
  • focusing on profitable growth.

We see all three elements as inextricably woven together, and we made a fundamental, strategic choice that the road to profitable growth would not be the proverbial straight line of simply pushing more sales.

So how is learning contributing to our organizational change and financial success? The simple answer is that weve strategically aligned our work to all three of our guiding principles and to the value chain that promotes profitable growth.

One team

Its no accident that operating as one team is our first guiding principle. Thats because the value chain research is clear: when employees are committed to your business success, their commitment fuels greater client loyalty and accelerates profitability.

For SunTrust, the commitment to our talent began with the deliberate choice of the word teammate, a term that reflects our commitment to one another and to our clients. Our beliefs about the way we should think, act, and make decisions are embedded in our use of the word teammate.

SunTrust President and CEO William H. Rogers Jr. sincerely believes that success begins and ends with talent. As a lifelong banker, hes the first to admit he has a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the softer side of business. Nevertheless, he is convinced that the road to improved profitability is built by highly engaged and effective teammates. Even during the economic downturn of the past few years, his commitment to talent remained intact; we continued to invest in talent development and engagement.

Because our success is fueled in part by our teammate engagement, weve invested in leadership development, teammate engagement, and coaching skills for the companys top 3,500 leaders. We restructured our approach to leadership and management development by creating a tiered curriculum that aligns with our structure and our culture:

Our top-tier program is a blended yearlong program, comprising 360-degree assessments, three weeks of formal leadership development, executive coaching, and on-the-job assignments.

  • Our mid-tier program is slightly shorter, but has a similar structure. In this program, we deploy a leaders as teachers philosophy, building broader perspectives about the business and fostering ongoing mentoring relationships.
  • Our beginning program grounds new leaders in the fundamentals of being a good coach and leading others, as well as anchoring them to our guiding principles.

Each year, we also train the top 3,500 leaders on our latest thinking regarding engagement. Weve purposefully aligned formal training with the performance management cycle to underscore the importance of effective performance management conversations. As weve matured in our approach to engagement, weve moved from a pure numbers conversation to one that now includes emotional aspects. Over time, our leaders have grown to appreciate that leading by the numbers is essential, but not enough. The nature of our teammate conversations is evolving to a more balanced dialogue that includes both the head and the heart.

Being an effective coach is another skills dimension weve addressed. Our engagement feedback clearly indicated a desire for teammates to experience more 1:1 feedback to help them improve their job performance. This is particularly true for our client-facing teammates. Weve introduced coaching programs to support not only our sales and service roles, but also our general management roles. The benefits of high-quality coaching cannot be underestimated. Increasing our coaching capability makes our leaders more effective and more efficient in developing our talent.

Our leadership development and other efforts have significantly accelerated our alignment to the business priorities. After our first year of focused leadership development, Rogers shared, We have forever changed the company. For any learning leader, that caliber of professional validation is both rare and rewarding. It underscores the potential impact of talent development when it is tightly aligned to the business priorities. It also validates the importance of the organization you lead and the influence you exert as a business leader.

To support teammate development outside the company, we have also restructured our tuition assistance program by increasing the reimbursement levels and making the program features more robust. We also regularly host lunch-and-learn sessions with local universities to allow teammates to easily access information about their educational opportunities outside of SunTrust.

Client first

For SunTrust, putting clients first begins with delivering exceptional service. The company contacts sample groups of clients each night to conduct research that informs our short- and long-term business decisions. The insights we gain shape our product, service, and process choices to meet our clients needs, and thus influence the investments we make in learning.

To enhance our client service experience, weve created line-of-business service-excellence programs tailored to client expectations in specific client segments. We also are introducing new technology platforms that our client-facing teammates use on a daily basisall of which require enterprisewide training support.

To stay connected to our clients and teammates, Rogers regularly spends time in the field. Recently he visited a branch and talked with teammates about how prepared they felt to support our clients. Rogers was delighted with their competence, but even more so with their confidencea confidence fostered in part by SunTrusts investment in training.

Profitable growth

SunTrusts mission remains unchanged: Helping people and institutions prosper. During the past few years, achieving that mission has required us to revisit many aspects of our business. Regulatory and legislative changes have fundamentally changed the models for profitable growth in the financial services sector. The associated changes in revenue sources coupled with evolving client expectations have triggered the need to optimize our business development approach.

As new strategic initiatives, processes, and distribution channels have emerged, so has the need for higher levels of consultative selling skills. Given the reputational damage suffered by many in the financial sector, the trusted advisor relationship has never been more necessaryand has never been more difficult to achieve.

To support profitable growth, weve directed our training investments in the following ways.

First, our Building Solid Relationships curriculum is focused on defining client needs and helping them navigate the range of choices they have regarding their finances. Weve immersed our teammates in this program, and we will continue to invest in our frontline organization as well as the managers who coach them.

Second, weve significantly increased our investment in the knowledge and skills required to manage credit risk. Managing risk translates into the need to train policies, procedures, and the underlying skills and knowledge to make good choices on behalf of the bank, our clients, and our investors.

Third, we strive for a consistent, high-quality client experience. In learning that means ensuring that our content, delivery capabilities, and technologies are aligned with the guiding principles of the company and clearly add value to the enterprise. Ensuring that teammates can articulate SunTrusts service offerings is core to fostering a consistent client experience.

Lastly, were putting more structure and emphasis on financial education in our communities. We believe well-informed clients will help stabilize and accelerate the global economic recovery, which is good for everyone.

As a talent development organization, part of adding value to the company is balancing efficiency with effectiveness. In 2011, we implemented the SunTrust Learning Portal to support greater e-learning, and we have begun our assessment of social media and collaboration tools. Were clearly looking for ways to enable informal learning to complement the formal learning we have under way.

These additions align with the expectation of SunTrust teammates, whose demographics are rapidly changing. The companys workforce already comprises 53 percent Millennials. This digital generation brings its technology and networking expectations into the workplace, so our ongoing challenge and opportunity is to integrate this new talent into SunTrust in a way that maximizes everyones potential. Said another way, learning is becoming increasingly dependent on technology.

Our results

Since we began shaping the business around three guiding principlesOne Team, Client First, and Profitable Growthweve experienced record deposit growth and industry-leading client loyalty. SunTrust receives ongoing recognition for excellence in client satisfaction, but even more telling, the company has proved that highly engaged teammates produce better results:

  • Mortgage teammates generate 38 percent more mortgages.
  • Private wealth advisors create 48 percent more in investment sales.
  • Business bankers bring in 59 percent more revenue.
  • Commercial bankers open 49 percent more new primary relationships.
  • Branch teammates convert 30 percent more clients to primary relationships.

At SunTrust, our momentum is driven largely by the performance of our teammates. It is refreshing to be part of an organization that clearly understands that our financial performance is directly connected to the talent within the organization. As Rogers says, It all begins and ends with talent, and the numbers prove him right.

Mary Slaughter is chief learning officer and senior vice president of talent management and development at SunTrust Banks; mary.slaughter@suntrust.coam.

Photograph by Gregory Miller