“It needs to be everybody’s responsibility.”

What would you say Truist has done best in terms of diversity and inclusion?

It’s part of our mission, which is to create an inclusive and energizing culture where teammates can learn, grow, and have a meaningful career. As a company, we offer eight Business Resource Groups to increase cultural awareness and foster inclusivity, we require our leaders to take Unconscious Bias training, and we also provide curated inclusion and diversity learning opportunities for all teammates.

Another thing we have done well is create a space where teammates can feel comfortable having hard conversations. Our inclusion, diversity, and equity team has facilitated more than 200 Days of Understanding sessions on race and social unrest. The conversations are around questions like: How are you feeling? What do you think about what’s going on? What do we need to do?

Those have been facilitated even at the highest level. CEO Kelly S. King hosted some. I sat in on one that he did, and I was blown away when he said, “This is where I need to take a seat and listen, and I need to hear what’s important.” That was huge.

What are the ways that companies can focus on diversity and inclusion as a long-term effort?

That’s exactly the opportunity: to continue that walk long after it stops being a headline or a hashtag. This journey is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Leaders have to resist the temptation to divert attention and resources from this once we’ve got the next thing that’s going on.

At Truist, we have a very defined strategy. There are roadmaps and milestones that we are continuing to measure. Because it’s one thing to say, “We’re going to increase by X percent by Y timeframe.” But do you really know what it’s going to take to do that? If you make it public and you tell teammates, it’s hard to walk back from it. Truist recently announced it’s committed to increasing diversity in leadership roles from 11.9% to 15% in three years, in addition to ensuring ongoing pay equity review for all teammates.

What would you say are strategies that HR personnel and recruiters can implement?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion need to be something that’s top of mind for everybody. It doesn’t just need to be one person’s responsibility; it needs to be everybody’s responsibility. Having dedicated resources for diversity recruiting is one part of that. For example, we ensure an HBCU and Diversity Recruiting Strategy to recruit top diverse talent and provide leadership training, leadership certification for students, internships, and financial support. We also have development and sponsorship programs focused on increasing the diversity of our senior leadership. 

What are the other parts?

Making sure that we have a diverse talent slate and diverse interview panel. Then, we’ve got to commit to not slide back into, “Well, we had a diverse talent slate. We still chose the way that we’ve always chosen.” No, diverse talent is going to make it to the finish line because we’re ensuring our processes are not in any way, shape, or form reinforcing things that can occur because of biases that people have.

Then we need to be doing consistent pay equity analysis to ensure that across the board, not just with ethnic diversity and gender diversity, but all areas of diversity within the entire company from top to bottom and horizontal, that we are fair and that we’re equitable in terms of our compensation.

What would you suggest as ways to support people of color as they’re moving into, or wanting to move into, executive roles?

Senior leaders can establish sponsorship programs in their organization, creating experiences for diverse individuals to gain access to upper-level roles.

Individuals who have moved into key roles can be part of the change, as well. I’ve had a responsibility to mentor and reach out to others. It’s easy to reach up, but you need to remember to reach back as well and bring other people along.

I have tried my best to pave the way for other people. It’s not a success to me that Dontá Wilson, chief digital and client experience officer, and I are the two ethnically diverse teammates sitting at the executive leadership table. I want there to be more. There needs to be more. 

Despite having years of experience and advanced degrees, many times women and people of color are still paid less. What are your thoughts on tangible strategies to close that gap?

First of all, leaders have to do the analysis to know where the problems exist. You need to be committed to correcting those issues. But I think the next step is finding the root cause. Why are those things happening? Are there things that leaders aren’t doing correctly? Are there additional steps to take when offers are made? Is there oversight that needs to happen?

With women and especially with ethnically diverse candidates, it’s sometimes positioned as the organization or the hiring manager taking a risk on you. “I’m going to give Kim this opportunity. This is a stretch, but I’m going to put her in this role.”

This leads the candidate to feel like she should be grateful to have this opportunity. Instead, women and people of color should realize: You’ve earned it. You’ve done the work. You deserve to be there just like everybody else. So you shouldn’t have to take a reduction in compensation because of that.

It’s a mind shift of us knowing our worth, knowing our value, being very clear about that going in, and not being afraid to have a hard conversation about compensation. 

Do you have any closing words of advice for leaders as they implement or revamp talent diversity efforts?

Listen to your teammates. Often the expertise that you may be looking for outside your organization is in your organization already. There are people within your organization who have those answers, those thoughts on what you and your organization need to do. I would next say, be committed and recognize that once you walk through that door, there’s no going back. 

Doing the Moore-Wright thing

For roughly 10 of her 25 years at Truist or its predecessor companies, Kim Moore-Wright specialized in training for all client-facing roles, from teller to regional president. Her successful track record includes a spot on Training magazine’s “Top Young Trainers 2011” list. From 2016 to 2019, she led the marketing and advertising team at heritage BB&T. Today, she oversees all human resource operations, including talent acquisition, learning and development, and pay-roll, caring for the needs of more than 59,000 teammates.