 SunTrust Banks, Inc. Interview Surveys
SunTrust Banks, Inc. Workplace Surveys
SunTrust Banks, Inc. Salary Surveys
SunTrust Banks, Inc. Business Outlook Surveys
Job Title: Relationship Manager
Location: Washington, DC
Submitted on: 17-Feb-04
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I have held five distinctly different positions in my tenure with
SunTrust and have found very different cultures within each group.
SunTrust's history of being a decentralized organization is changing,
but slowly. While many functions are consolidating, there is still a
lot of room for local flavor. In some instances, this lack of cultural
consistency at the line level creates opportunities for superior
performance. Unfortunately, it also creates confusion.
Change is the only constant. Although we must change to compete and
grow, much of the change we have to endure is counterproductive. When
we introduce or upgrade a system (loan accounting, deposit accounting,
credit management, etc), it seems we either rush the system into
production, before many of the glitches are worked through, or we fail
to purchase the key bells and whistles that may be available that
enable us to get data out of the system. These days, our professional
lives are dependent upon good systems. My experience is that SunTrust
routinely fails to invest fully. We take short cuts that seem
expedient (and cheap) in the near term, but restrict our ability to
operate efficiently in the long term.
In its efforts to transform itself into a "world class sales
organization", SunTrust has gone campaign-happy. In addition to having
a set of sales goals comprised of more than a dozen categories, most
folks are also bombarded with intra-year campaigns designed to front-
load the sales effort (i.e., make most of your annual goals in the
first half of the year). We are also inundated with referral campaigns
to sister lines of business. We have reached the point where it is
hard to focus on ones primary responsibility because you are constantly
trying to figure out how to meet this weeks or month's goal that is
totally unrelated to the things that your job description says you are
being paid to do. Customers need bankers who are specialists in their
type of business. What they end up getting at SunTrust is a generalist
who can refer you to someone else for a reward. Many of the employees
I work with believe the bank would be far better off charging us with
being focused on our primary responsibility, and incenting us
handsomely to produce superior performance in a limited number of
goals. As it is, "goal diffusion" has watered down our message. And
the incentives are hardly worth picking up the phone for.
I give the company high marks for diversity in my region (Mid-
Atlantic). I cannot speak to other regions, but our workforce is a
microcosm of the communities we serve which are increasingly culturally
diverse. In fact, there is an ongoing internal debate about how best
to promote diversity. In hiring for our training program, we have at
times passed over more highly rated candidates in order to achieve
diversity goals. At no time are we making offers to unqualified
candidates; its just that recently we have chosen to elevate the
priority of diversity characteristics in the decsion making process.
Going back to the theme of culture being a function of which group you
are in, the same holds true for normal work hours and the dress code.
In some groups, the coffee is on at 7 and the lights are out some 12 to
13 hours later. In others, the manager arrives sometime after 9 and is
gone shortly after 4. In most groups, everyone is expected to dress
like a traditional banker -- conservative, suit & tie for gentlemen and
skirt and heels for ladies. In a few, business casual is the norm
unless you are visiting with a client who only does "business formal."
Opportunities for advancement are what one would expect of a large,
male dominated, southern cultured company. There are very few women
and minorities in senior management positions. Those who do hold those
spots have been there seemingly forever. Perhaps our efforts to focus
on diversity at the entry level will ultimately have an impact at the
uppermost echelons of the bank, but it will likely take 20 years -- too
long for anyone worth their salt to wait.
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