Employer Spotlights: SunTrust Bank
Tampa, FL
Comment provided by Ruby "JoJo" White, Human Resources Officer, Recruiter
In preparation for Disability Mentoring Day (DMD), it is critical that an employer align themselves with the local DMD Planning Committee or Community Liaison. The Tampa Bay Region SunTrust Bank became involved with Disability Mentoring Day seven years ago. Each year, the event continues to grow thanks the enthusiasm of the staff who help to coordinate activities and the volunteers who serve as employer mentors.
SunTrust does not rely on a 'traditional' one-on-one matching process for DMD. Since banks handle confidential customer information all day, they have had to work to create the best possible job mentoring experience while using nontraditional job-shadowing techniques. The Tampa Bay SunTrust Bank DMD program typically lasts from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM, beginning with a networking breakfast in the company Board Room, a Lunch-N-Learn Program, a micro job fair, and a lobby employee Q & A session.
SunTrust begins the process at least four months in advance, to help with working out any last minute details. If your county does not have a planning committee, contact The Able Trust and they will do their best to connect you with all of the resources you need to host a successful mentoring experience. If it is your first year participating in this wonderful process, our advice would be to set small goals, and add onto that each year. You will learn something new with each event, and grow your supports, contacts, and resources over time. Even if you can only provide a job-matching experience for one mentee, you have made a difference in that person's life. No event is too big or too small.
For SunTrust Bank, our Diversity Council has been an extremely useful resource and has become very committed to the DMD cause. In October, our corporate website highlights Disability Awareness Month. A week prior to the DMD event, daily email updates are sent out region-wide with Disability History and Culture information with the purpose of educating our staff on the importance and relevance of this annual event (such as Disability Etiquette, Famous People with Disabilities, Resources and Links for People with Disabilities, Disability Sensitivity, visible vs. invisible, etc.). We receive a very positive response from our employees on the information that is sent out. Our current employees who have disabilities, or family and friends with disabilities, have provided crucial feedback on this process which has a purpose is to educate and inform our employees.
SunTrust Bank's success with this program is made evident in the responses from both our employees and from our former mentees. The heart-felt thank you notes we receive inspire us to continue to offer this experience year after year. Again and again, we hear from mentees that they "didn't think a bank would hire a person with a disability." This sentiment alone motivates us to continue to improve and build on our event…in order to make the experience bigger and better each year. The harder we work to build an inclusive workplace, the sooner that misconception will disappear.
During the breakfast, student and/or jobseeker mentees have the opportunity to network and speak with regional executives, who each provide a brief presentation about their area of expertise and for which department or branch they are responsible. They highlight their career paths and education background.
"We believe it is really important that CEOs, executive team members and line managers participate in this experience in order to send the message that hiring people with disabilities is important to everyone and that the hiring process begins at the top," said Ruby JoJo White, Human Resource Officer/Recruiter.
After breakfast, SunTrust hosts a micro-job-fair, where each department staffs a table so that mentees can speak directly with a manager in a non-presentation setting. Each manager is equipped with a list of job descriptions from his or her department. This list is shared with the mentees so they can ask informed questions about the day-to-day tasks within that department. At conclusion of the job fair, they are also provided with a list of current job openings.
Each mentee then attends a Lunch-n-Learn Program about Interviewing Skills & Resume Writing. Examples of 'good' and 'bad' resumes are reviewed by our excellent staff. Role playing is used to create a fun, hands-on learning environment, whereby mentees act as the hiring manager with a list of standard interview questions. Staff from the human resource department plays the 'perfect and not so perfect interviewees'. This helps the mentee put hiring practices into perspective, and is usually a lot of fun! Since this is a hands-on participatory activity, the skills are more useful to the mentees because they have been practiced.
To conclude the mentoring experience, the mentees tour the branch lobby, at which time they have the opportunity to hear from each employee about their day to day responsibilities and what it is like to be a teller, financial service representative and a manager. These employees have prepared in advance to speak about their jobs and field questions from the mentees. The mentees really seem to enjoy this part in particular as they can begin to visualize themselves in some of the roles they have learned about over the course of the day. This session concludes our DMD event, and both the staff and mentees are shown appreciation as their farewells are expressed.