Kimberly Moore-Wright has taken steps big and small to make Truist more employee friendly.
She successfully led a push to increase the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender's minimum pay for workers from $15 to $22 an hour, which became company policy last October. The Truist chief teammate officer also facilitated an expansion of employee health benefits.
Truist will now help cover travel costs for care unavailable within 100 miles of where a worker lives, including for reproductive care, family planning and mental wellness.
Truist also expanded parental leave at the beginning of 2023 to 20 weeks, up from 16, and increased to 30 days the time an employee can take off to care for an ill family member.
Each of these measures, of course, costs money. Asked if her boss — Bill Rogers, Truist CEO and chairman — objected to these changes, Moore-Wright replied, "There's always a discussion." But she said Rogers and other Truist leaders were aligned in that the company had to invest in its employees.
"Our teammates are our most important asset. Full stop," Moore-Wright said. "If we don't have highly engaged, capable and confident teammates, there's an adverse client impact."
After 24 years at BB&T, Moore-Wright was part of the merger between SunTrust and BB&T in 2019 that created Truist, one of the largest banks in the U.S. with 55,000 employees and $555 billion in assets. In helping lead a company that has existed mainly during a global pandemic, Moore-Wright keeps a sharp eye on workplace flexibility as well as mental health.
She has implemented an "intentional flexibility" work plan, which means employees can work remotely and managers resist putting quotas on how often people go to the office. The policy also encourages managers to organize in-person networking events, so people feel part of a common goal.
Moore-Wright has also asked managers to speak about mental health. The hope is that anxiety, depression and other related issues are destigmatized and employees feel comfortable speaking with their supervisors. Moore-Wright has provided tips on how workers can address their mental health as part of a "Leaders Who Care" podcast series featuring company executives.
Along with being chief teammate officer, Moore-Wright helms enterprise diversity, which aims to bolster race and ethnic diversity in senior leadership. According to Moore-Wright, 17% of the bank's senior leadership roles in the midpoint of 2023 are held by racially and ethnically diverse colleagues, up from 12% the year before.
Moore-Wright has also helped to expand the relationship between Truist and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte Belk College of Business. She sits on the business school's board of advisors and is a UNC-Charlotte alum. "I owe a lot to where I am from that university," she said.
Last year, Truist donated $5.3 million to the university and provides scholarships for students attending the school.
"UNCC is one of the places we recruit," Moore-Wright said. "So, I have a rational self-interest in helping."
