Introduction

Human Resource planning plays a vital role in the achievement of an organization overall
strategic objectives and visibly illustrates that the human resources function fully understands
and supports the direction in which the organization is moving. HR planning will also support
other specific strategic objectives undertaken by the marketing, financial, operational and
technology departments. Therefore, an HR planning should aim to capture the people element
of what an organisation is hoping to achieve in the medium to long term, ensuring that: it has
the right people in place, it has the right mix of skills, employees display the right attitudes
and behaviours, and Employees are developed in the right way. Hence to provide this
research we decide Bank Rakyat as case study.

Organization overview

Bank Rakyat was established on 28 September 1954 under the Cooperative Ordinance 1948.
Nowadays Bank Rakyat is the biggest Islamic cooperative bank in Malaysia with assets
totalling RM79.21 billion as at end of 2012. The transformation in 2002 of the Bank from a
conventional banking system to a banking system based on Syariah has enabled the Bank to
record encouraging profits year after year. Bank Rakyat continues to expand their product
range and customer facilities that are varied and innovative. The products and facilities

include consumer banking, commercial financing, savings and investments as well as

products of financial planning to satisfy the many demands of a wide spectrum of modern
day customers. Efficient delivery channels continue to be expanded and continuously
improved. Bank Rakyat continues to maintain a friendly corporate image to become Your
Choice Bank. The Mission of bank rakyat is To help improve the economic well-being of
members by providing financing facilities at an affordable rate for agriculture, production,
marketing, fishing, transportation, housing and business activities deemed beneficial to
members and to also promote thrift and savings. To become your choice bank in Malaysia is
Bank Rakyat vision. Mission and vision which is align with the human resource strategy is
also synergize with company objective which is to ensure a satisfactory profit towards
meeting dividend payments to its members while charging reasonable profit rates that is not a
burden to its members.

Syariah system

Bank Rakyat has different kind of products that provide customers to be profitable and safe
towards the economic measure. One of well known products in Bank Rakyat is Syariah
system. It means that all of systems in Bank Rakyat are based on Islamic religious law. These
are the types of Syariah system in Bank Rakyat such as;

Al-Wadiah (savings with trust/ guarantee)

Al-Wadiah refers to agreement where customers deposit money in the Bank, and the
Bank becomes wholly responsible and liable for its safekeeping.

Al-Mudharabah ( profit sharing )

Al-Mudharabah refers to an agreement where customers deposit capital in the Bank,
and the Bank becomes wholly responsible and liable in the management and

investment the deposits in halal business ventures. Profits gained will be divided and
distributed accordingly, based on margins agreed upon earlier.

Al-Musyarakah ( joint venture )

Al-Musyarakah refers to a partnership or joint venture for a specific business purposes
with a profit motive, whereby the distribution of profits/losses will be apportioned
according to the capital contributed.

Qardhul Hassan ( benevolent loan )

Qardhul Hassan refers to an interest-free loan. The borrower is only required to repay
the principal amount borrowed, but he may pay an additional amount at his absolute
discretion, as a token of appreciation.

Al-Ijarah Thumma Al-Bai' ( hire and purchase )

* Al-Ijarah means contract
*Al-Bai means purchase
Under the first contract, the customers hire the goods from the Bank at an agreed
rental amount over a specified period. Upon expiry of the hiring period, the customer
enters into a second contract to purchase the goods from the Bank at an agreed price.

SECTION B

(a) Planning Strategies for HRD

HR strategy is a high-level statement of how HR can support business or

organizational objectives, setting out the broad direction HR intends to take. Bank
Rakyat has several strategies that they listed in order to ensure their human resource
function accordingly. The strategies also help the department to manage their
employees in terms of their training, career development and welfare of employees.
Among the strategies are:

i)

Development of Strategies and Human Resource Management Policies.

HRD must be integrated as part of HRM in order to ensure the success of HR
practice. The HRM and HRD are complementary to each other. Therefore, it is
important to achieve corporate business goals and objectives and it is effective
when it is implemented in organizations. The HR department will develop
many strategies to manage the employees. This is because, employees are the
asset of organization and through employees, and the organization will run
smoothly and achieve good performance and reputation. All the HR policies
must be communicated towards employees so that they will understand their
function in organization and what they can and cannot do in organization.
However, some of the strategy to encourage the employees to work and
sustain with organization is planning about their training, career, rewards and
benefit. All these are including in HRM policies.

ii)

Increase Commitment and Key Performance Index(KPI)

Commitment of employees is important in every organization. Through the
commitment, it will increase the productivity and produce good service. At
Bank Rakyat, they try to encourage employees commitment so that, they can
become as a competitive and high reputation bank. This bank is different from
other bank because it is the one and only Bank Koperasi in Malaysia. That
makes the different. Their system is also different from others. That is why;
they try to get employees commitment by having reward in monetary and nonmonetary forms. Monetary rewards basically they will receive a lot of bonus

such as there is one employee who get 16 months bonus while non-monetary
such as promotion. This will enable to acquire commitment from employees
and motivate them to produce good service and have good performance at
their organization.
Besides that, by increasing the commitment of employees, indirectly it will
increase the key performance index (KPI) of Bank Rakyat that is they have
high credibility to achieve their goals and standard. Therefore, they are trying
to increase the employees commitment and involvement to achieve the target
either at headquarters or branch. Everybody will play their role to achieve the
standards. The performance will increase by sending them from training and
encourage their employees to learn either they get from training or experience.
Bank Rakyat has set the KPI which every employee must have three days per
year for training.

iii)

Managing Employees Competencies and Ability of Employees at High

Level
The other strategy that Bank Rakyat has set up to boost their HRD function is
to manage employees competencies and ability of employees at high level.
Human Resource in Bank Rakyat is dividing into four which are recruitment,
payroll, employee relation and training. All these will play their role but
managing employees competencies is the responsibility of training division.
Training division who hold the responsibility to ensure their employees will go
for training. All the training is managed and monitored by Bank Rakyat
Headquarters. Basically their training is related to banking sectors and work
related.
The training that will be conducted depends on the needs such as there is new
product or system practice at banking sector for example training in Ar Rahnu
system, Marketing and etc. The best thing is that all the training is fully
sponsored by bank. Since there are a lot of Bank Rakyat branches in Malaysia,
the headquarters will ask the branch to send a name of training candidate to

Headquarters and they will choose who are supposed to attend the training and
if the candidate cannot attend, they will change to other person. However,
from the training given, it will help to increase the competencies of every
employee at Bank Rakyat and try to compete with other banks in Malaysia.

iv)

The Development and Implementation of Culture and Suitable Islamic

Value
The other HRD strategy that they plan is the development and implementation
of culture and suitable Islamic value. Bank Rakyat is not a conventional bank.
Their operation is based on Islamic banking. That is why HR department
especially training department try to ensure that the employees practice the
Islamic value in their daily operation such as akad. They discourage the
service or product which contradict the Islamic value. The HR department has
to plan those courses which are suitable with the Bank Rakyat practice in
order to achieve the goals.

(b) Action Plan

i)

Interpret and Implement HR Policies Accurately, Clearly and Correctly

by Each Manager
In a HR department, as a HR manager, they must be able to interpret and
implement HR policies accurately, clearly and correctly. It is because, all the
policies must be understood by all employees and the policies must be
communicated well to them. Each Branch Manager also should know about
HR policies because it is related to the employees performance, employees
welfare and training especially at branch level. If it is being ignored by some

of the manager, it will affect the employees understanding about HR and they
will not know what their rights in that particular organization are.

ii)

Developing

and

Implementing

Reward

Systems,

Performance

Management and Motivation Programs

In order to encourage employees commitment in organization, the HR
department and the top management will discuss how to develop and
implement reward system, performance management and motivation program.
It is important because through these entire programs, it will enable the
employees to show a good performance and give full commitment towards the
organization in achieving the objective of company. For instance, the rewards
system, they give in terms of bonus which who perform well will get more
bonus each year. This indirectly will motivate the employees to contribute
more towards the organization and achieve the KPI. Bank Rakyat also conduct
family day to ensure the employees free from stress at work and it allow them
to mix around with each other. Besides that, the performance of employees is
being evaluated at branch level because they are far from headquarters and the
branch manager will evaluate their performance.

iii)

Establish Long-Term Plan and Strategies for Competitive Advantage

The long-term bank strategy is to compete with other bank and all employees
must have the ability at high level. It means that, since Bank Rakyat is
practicing Islamic Banking, they must compete with conventional bank and
local bank such as Maybank and CIMB Bank. Before this, the reputation of
Bank Rakyat is not good level but lately, Bank Rakyat is one of the top
ranking banks in Malaysia. This is because of their rewards, the employees
welfare and their service towards client is good. Therefore, now Bank Rakyat
competes with others and tries to increase the employees competencies by
sending their employees to training and practice good career development.

This is one of the action plans that this organization took which is aligned with
the Bank long-term strategies.

iv)

Determine the Dimensions of Corporate Culture, the Beliefs including

Behavior Indicators
The other action plan is to determine the dimension of corporate culture, the
belief including the behavior indicator. The culture of bank is based on Islamic
value which is they must practice good greetings towards client and akad
after the transaction is complete. It is aligning with the function of Bank
Rakyat that all the business must be based on Syariah. The HR department
also try to train the employees to practice the privacy, accountability, fairness
and transparent during the business operation.
This is become as their behavior indicator. For instance, in terms of privacy
the practice is that they will treat all client personal information as private and
confidential and ensure the safety and security of the usage of your
information. Accountability is that products and services comply with relevant
laws and regulations of Malaysia which explain and help to understand the
financial benefits of bank products and services that they are interested in,
how they work and the risks involved. Fairness is to act fairly and reasonably
towards client in a consistent and ethical manner and establish a clear set of
procedures. In terms of transparency, each banking product or service will be
made readily available to client with all the fees, charges, penalties and
relevant profit rates, client liabilities and obligations in the use of bank product
or service highlighted. Therefore, through practicing these culture and value, it
will help the Bank to have a good performance and being trusted by their
customers. It is aligned with the Bank Rakyat motto which is Your Choice
Bank.

(c) Identify the Critical Action

i)

To Ensure the HRD Plan and Policies are Implemented Accordingly and
Written Out
HRD plan and policies must be implemented well and written out and it
should provide more general and practical advice and guidance for managers
and others on a range of employment issues. HR policies are a written source
of guidance on how a wide range of issues should be handled within an
organization,

incorporating

description

of

principles,

rights

and

responsibilities for managers and employees. Therefore, the organization

should practice according to the policies stated and it must be aligned with
organizations objective.
Besides that, the policies should be written out. It is the way to communicate
the policies to employees. They can come out with employees handbook in
communicating the policies. The employees can refer to the handbook to know
their rights especially about human resource policies. This can help them more
in understanding the policies.

ii)

To Give An Appropriate Training to Employees

Organizations should identify the training that suits their employees. The
appropriate training is important to ensure the employees are able to perform
work activities competently. The training and development itself must be
appropriate for the person and the situation. The content of training must be
work related such as the training related to credit or loans, Ar-Rahnu and High
risk training; the content must be according to the name of training. It is to
ensure that, when the content appropriate, the employees can practice of what
they had learned during the training to real business.

iii)

To Ensure the Implementation of Training Give Benefit to Employees

Besides that, the other critical plan is to ensure the implementation of training
give benefit to employees. It means that, the employees can use the knowledge
from training for a long term and it can help to increase the competencies. This
is because employees can get the competencies from training and it will help
the bank to compete with other bank. From the knowledge that the employees
get, it well helps them to perform well and it can help in their career
development.

iv)

Ensure the Appropriate Training Evaluation

Basically, the training evaluation is conducted after the training has been done.
The questionnaire is distributed at the end of training session. Besides that, the
evaluation can be done based on Kirkpatrick model which have the elements
of reaction, learning, behavior and results. It is necessary to evaluate the
training because it relates to cost especially for Bank Rakyat which is fully
sponsored for their employees to go for training. Bank Rakyat has allocated
the budget for training and to have the return of investment is important to
them and they want their investment to be beneficial to them.

Utk critical action pnye reference

1. http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/hr-policies.aspx

(d) Planning Participation

From the interviews that have been conducted, we found that the people who are responsible
for the human resource planning and formulation of human resource strategies in Bank
Rakyat are the managers from Human Resource Department at Headquarters. The strategies,
objectives, vision, mission and action plan will be shared and implemented at headquarters
level as well as at branch level.

Barriers to Achieve the Alternatives

a) Less Emphasize on Learning Process of Employees

From the interviews, we manage to identify one of the main barriers in achieving the
HR strategies is that they are too focused on training and pay less emphasize on
learning process of employees. As one of their objectives is to develop high level of
competencies and job skills, they perceived training is the only tool to achieve this
objective.
Bank Rakyat Pontian has failed to acknowledge that the development of employees
go beyond than just training. Training indeed can improve the effectiveness and
betterment of the employees to perform their job. However, there is very little effort in
encouraging learning process of employees that also contribute to the effectiveness of
the job though it may not have an immediate return. Lack awareness of how
importance of learning can contribute to the development of employees can hinder
Bank Rakyat Pontian to achieve its HR objective.

During 4 days of interviews and meeting sessions, we noticed that the organizational
climate is not supporting employees learning where communication is limited
especially at strategic and tactical level. There are huge division between one
employees desk to another, passive and silence working culture. In our view this
environment can curb accidental learning from happening. However, at operational
level, employees are actively moving, asking and helping each other which in our
view can foster employees learning and definitely increase their competencies and
effectiveness in any way though it is not an obvious return.

(b) Lack support of top manager

We also identify another barrier that could hinder the achievement of HR alternative
in Bank Rakyat Pontian is that top managers are not playing a critical role in
developing employees. All HRD and HRM effort are expected to come from the
Human resource department at headquarters.
Top manager are the people who have more authority and power compare to anybody
else in an organization. Therefore top managers have significant influence in
enforcing HR strategies throughout every level of employees in the organization.
Therefore, in our views, top managers should play an active role in the development
of the employees and should not depend on the HRD staff alone.
Top manager should supervise the employees closely and thus encourage learning
especially to its application and utilisation. As one of the HR objectives of Bank
Rakyat are to improve commitment and KPI, close supervision and regular evaluation
could help to achieve these objectives. Close supervision by top manager can ensure
what is learnt by employees during training or courses are really be practised on real
job for example team building or client business operation. Close supervision also can
help employees to better understanding of their job, and thus increasing their
performance and commitment towards their job which top manager of Bank Rakyat
Pontian has failed to acknowledge.

However, line managers in Bank Rakyat Pontian seem to be actively supervising and
mentoring employees from operational level. The senior managers of Bank Rakyat is
always helping the subordinates and kept his room open, leaving operational staff go
in and out to ask question and help each other to which in our perspectives are good to
encourage employees learning and thus improve their motivation and commitment
towards work when they can understand well of their job.

(c) Weak Evaluation System of Training Intervention

The evaluation of training intervention in Bank Rakyat is only conducted at

headquarters. They are using Kirkpatrick evaluation system. However, we think that
the evaluation should also be conducted at branch level. The top managers and line
managers in Bank Rakyat Pontian can act as the evaluator. This is because these
people are working closely with employees and can directly evaluate the employees.
This is because most of the qualitative aspects are difficult to measure without direct
supervision for example change in attitude, change in behaviour and the utilisation of
knowledge from the training. The evaluation in the branch level can help Bank
Rakyat to determine whether the objectives of the training are met or not.
Performance evaluation that they have probably can only measure the visible output
of the training but ignore the qualitative or invisible aspect of the training.

(d) Training Intervention Not Aligned with Business Strategy

To which extent the training efforts really align with their objectives also become our
group concern. From the interview, we found that as Bank Rakyat portrays the image
of Islamic banking, one of their strategic objectives included is to develop Islamic
culture and apply good values among employees for example to achieve high level of
integrity workforce and business practise that based on Shariah Law. However, most
of the trainings and courses that are conducted for Bank Rakyat employees are relate
to on-job training. There are no training conducted that relates with the integrity and
Islamic values except from the team building training that integrates these values in
their training courses. From the interview, we also identify that operational employees

are sometimes dealing with integrity issues and also take action that are contradicts
with HR objectives. For example, the HR policy stated that every business
transactional have to go with aqad or Ijab and Qabul referring to the verbal
agreement between both parties to do business contract. However, some employees
either forget or simply dont want to do aqad, makes the business transaction less
islamic as it not complying the shariah law.
Our group think that the alignment of objectives and critical action is important in
order for Bank Rakyat Pontian to achieve HR objectives and also to achieve strategic
HRD. Therefore any HRD effort should complement the business strategy.

Recommendations

1. Develop Organizational Climate/Environment That Support Learning

Organizational climate can be defined as the recurring patterns of behaviour, attitudes
and feelings that characterize life in the organization. Usually, climate proves easier to
assess and change. At an individual level of analysis, the concept is called individual
psychological climate. These individual perceptions are often aggregated or collected
for analysis and understanding at the team or group level, or the divisional, functional,
or overall organizational level.
As for Bank Rakyat Pontian, it is advised for them to develop organizational climate
that supports learning. It means that, they have to instil a very interactive work
condition either at the strategic level or the operation level. It is because, when the
planner has a very good working experience, they tend to plan an attractive policy for
the sake of all in the organization.

With this recommendation Bank Rakyat was successfully develop organizational

climate that supports learning. Moreover this strategy was distributed entirely not only
in the branch but in the entire organization itself.
2. More Active Supervision/Mentoring From Top Level Manager
Supervision can be defined as the action, process or the occupation of supervising. In
addition, it is also a critical watching and directing. So, in Bank Rakyat Pontian,
active supervision is needed because it seems that the employees are lack of
supervision. The employees were given full authority of doing their own job. But, this
will lead to role ambiguity. It is found that the employees are reluctant to consult with
the employers by their own incentive, so the supervisor themselves have to sometimes
check upon the employees progress. It can be done in weekly basis instead of daily
basis supervision.
Other than that, mentoring also can be helpful in catering this problem. Mentoring is a
developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills,
information and perspective to foster the personal and professional growth of
someone else. We all have a need for insight that is outside of our normal life and
educational experience. The power of mentoring is that it creates a one-of-a-kind
opportunity for collaboration, goal achievement and problem-solving. That is the top
level manager should be the mentors for the employees.
After analyze this recommendation Bank Rakyat realize that it has still some lack of
communication that mentoring isnt spread widely in each branch of them. However
this has become Bank Rakyat agenda to look forward in order to be better.
3. Conduct Evaluation/Assessment At Branch Level
We found that Bank Rakyat conduct the evaluation of training only in the central
level. In order for Bank Rakyat to overcome the less productive employees,
conducting evaluation of training program at branch level is very essential. The head
of the branch can act as the evaluator because they were the one who works closely
with the employees at the branch level.
According to Bank Rakyat it has been done and still look up to be more progressing
than before. Evaluation in each branch helps them to analyze and develop to each
difficulty in order to be better.

4. Encourage Employees To Take Responsibilities Of Their Own Learning

This can be done by making employees to attend seminars or training outside
organization like integrity seminars, etc. It means to say that the employees do not
have the initiatives to improve the skills by their own. Actually, Malaysian
government has established HRDF (Human Resource Development Fund) for giving
out the guidance to the employers, training provider and also employees. There is
some training that is claimable under HRDF. There is also special discounted price
given via HRDF. So, the top manager should act as the person in charge that gives out
the knowledge that the training can be claimed because when it comes to money,
some employees will feel reluctant to go for training.
Other than that, Bank Rakyat Pontian also should hold integrity training. Integrity
training here means how to work with a high value of working culture. The
employees should work with a high level of courtesy, honest and high level of
tolerance.
Related with this recommendation Bank Rakyat sense that it will takes time to
implement it but Bank Rakyat never doubt to this condition. It already stated that this
condition makes them to put in their agenda.

references
http://www.hrdf.com.my