The
Islamic Banks have their own personnel policies consisting of recruitment,
placement, promotion, transfer, and termination. The components of
the Personnel Policy are discussed below.
Recruitment
Islamic
Banks assess their needs for manpower recruitment with the company’s
organizational goals. Open positions are advertised the National Dailies.
The advertisement mainly provides a description of the positions, scale of
pay, age, nationality, educational qualifications, experience and other
terms and conditions of the application and service. Current employees may
apply to fulfill the advertised open positions. In terms of age of a
candidate, normally he shall not be less than twenty years and more than
thirty years of age at the time of appointment by direct recruitment as an
officer, and not less than eighteen years and more than thirty years of
age at the time of appointment by direct recruitment, as an employee other
than an officer in the service of the banks. However, in special cases,
the employer can relax the upper age limit for reasons to be recorded in
writing. In terms of nationality, Islamic banks do not appoint any person
to any post unless he is a citizen of Bangladesh. Physical fitness is
another important factor in the recruitment of personnel at a bank. Thus
an applicant must be declared physically fit by the Medical Officer of the
bank or some other Medical Authority specified by the bank on their
behalf.
Placement:
Positions
may be filled by direct recruitment or by the promotion of an existing
employee. Prior to starting in a new position, a new employee must fulfill
the terms and conditions stipulated in the appointment letter he receives
notifying him of the offer.
Promotion:
Islamic banks may consider promoting an employee according to his merit
based upon the total marks obtained on his Annual Confidential Report
(ACR). The ACR keeps track of an employee’s academic qualifications,
professional qualifications, training, seniority in the feeder grade,
adverse service record in the feeder grade, promotion examination
(viva-voce or written test or both). In the event two candidates have the
same quality marks, seniority may be used as a determining factor.
Seniority is calculated by years of service with fractions of the year
being calculated on a pro rata basis rounding towards the nearest whole
number.
Transfer:
An
employee may be transferred between locations or job classifications as
per the order of the competent authority. Normally an employee must be in
a position for at least three years prior to being transferred. Transfers
result in new challenges, environment and employee relationships
revigorate an employees interest in his work.
Dismissal:
Islamic banks may dismiss the service of an employee at any time once he
has been given at least one month’s written notice. As an alternative, an
employee can be terminated immediately if the bank chooses to make payment
equal to one- month's salary in lieu of giving such notice. In addition,
the employee may not be entitled to any form of compensation for
termination of service. The duration of such notice depends upon the
nature of service, whether it is temporary, probation or confirmed.
Normally disciplinary issues or medical concerns may be given as causes
for dismissal from service.
TRAINING
Training
is widely considered as an important tool for enhancing a person’s
Attitude, Skill and Knowledge (ASK). It is the process of assisting a
person for developing his efficiency and effectiveness at work by
improving and updating his professional knowledge, by developing skills
relevant to his work and growing appropriate behavior and attitude
towards work and people. Training is, therefore, an effective tool for
Human Resource Development (HRD) as well as for achieving the goals of
an organization.
Islamic
banking is a Shariah-based interest-free banking system. It has to
operate in a way that benefits society as a whole. Its features and
functional procedures are quite distinctive than that of the traditional
banking system. To satisfy the objectives of the Islamic banking and to
face the challenge of the next century, the job of Islamic banking is
becoming more complicated and more technical day by day. The personnel
of Islamic banks require special ASK, which can be developed through
proper training. Obviously, that a large number of properly trained
employees would result in increased output and reduced costs, further
resulting in maximum utilization of human resources, which will
ultimately benefit the entire nation.
The four
(4) Islamic banks of the country also have recognized the importance of
training for their employees. This can be substantiated from the
following paragraphs:
Islami
Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) has mentioned that “since our system is
new, training is considered to be sin-qua-non for successful operations
of the Bank. Before establishment of the Bank, Bangladesh Islamic
Bankers’ Association (BIBA) conducted several Orientation Courses on
Islamic Banking in which senior and mid-level bankers, lawyers,
chartered accountants, media-men, management experts participated. Most
of the officers of the Bank were selected from their list. Training
academy of the Bank has also been established. Orientation and skill
development courses are conducted regularly. Special attention is paid
to on-the-job training on the basis of job rotation plan. Besides, the
officers and employees periodically attend seminars and symposiums
organized by the Bank and other bodies.
Similarly,
Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited has mentioned that “Since Islamic banking
is different in many respects than that of conventional system of
banking, the officers are, therefore, required to attain thorough
knowledge about the Islamic banking system in order to explain the same
to the clients properly. Therefore, effective training program for the
officers are being undertaken. Side by side, on-the-job training is also
being imparted specially for the new employees. The Board of Directors
is aware that the objectives of the Bank might be defeated if the
officers don’t practice the Islamic rituals in their daily life.
Therefore, all officers are being motivated to be practicing Muslim in
their daily life apart from saying prayer in Jamaat. It may be mentioned
that every branch has hours at the time of prayer. Nevertheless
Dars-e-Quran and Hadith is also being held after Asar-Prayer
everday”.
The
Social Investment Bank Limited (SIBL) has also recorded that “training
is the basic need for the development of Human Resources. Accordingly,
SIBL has decided to establish one training academy in the name of
University School of Social Economics and Management. The new recruits
(officers) would be inducted with basic foundation training including
advanced training courses to get them fully acquainted with the basic
concept and objectives of SIBL. There is an ultimate aim of development
this training academy to a real-life university which will be staffed by
eminent professional bankers, economist and scholars from home and
abroad.”
Al-Baraka
Bank Bangladesh Limited has also indicated the necessity of the training
mentioning that “Despite their unequivocal commitment to provide only
Islamic banking they were unable to deliver full Islamic finance which
was a major disappointment. The Shariah Council had, once again, pointed
out these failures.”
A.K.N.
Ahmed, Former Governor of Bangladesh Bank is of the opinion that each
bank officer and stuff should subject to intensive training on banking
ethics and customer service before they are put to the job. He also
suggests that the activities of training academies should be revived to
ensure that each bank is getting proper output from these
institutions.
Conceptual
Framework for Training Management
Training
is provided to the employees of an organization in order to achieve the
goals of the organization. Thus, for any management training exercise,
the goals and objectives of the organization must be taken into
consideration. In fact, management of training gets its direction from
the organizational goal set by the management at a macro level. This
implies that the first thing that comes into consideration for training
management is the organizational goals and objectives.
Organizational
goal setting is followed by the formulation of a training plan based on
a training needs assessment. Once a plan is in place, management
has to execute the plan. At this stage training is provided to the
trainees on a needs assessment basis. The training institutes
conduct workshops and seminars. The final process of a training
management system can be illustrated by the following figure
1.
Figure
1: Training Management System.
Types
of Training
Training
in Islamic banks may be of three types: (i) Ideological (ii)
Theoretical and (iii) Practical. Ideological training may be related
with the holy Quran and Sunnah and Shariah issues on banking. The
practical training may conducted through discussions and exercises on
banking issues in a classroom setting. In addition, some training may be
administered while the employee is on the job, to allow the employee to
learn Islamic banking through practice. The theoretical training may
equip an employee with Islamic knowledge and values, which is considered
to be essential for Islamic banking.
Theoretical
training may provide a conceptual clarity on the understanding of
Islamic banking. However, practical training of Islamic banking provides
the skills and art necessary to perform a job. An employee should have
all types of training in order to best prepare him to perform his job
requirements.
Possible
Areas of Training
Since
Islamic banking mainly practices general banking, investment and foreign
exchange, training should focus on these three areas of banking. Islamic
banks may consider the following areas while devising their training
programs:
1.
Induction
/ Foundation Training
2.
Banking
Laws and Practices
3.
Foreign
Exchange and Foreign Trade
4.
Investment
Management
5.
Branch
Management
6.
Customer
Services Development
7.
Audit
and Inspections in Banks
8.
Islamic
Economics and Banking
9.
Islamic
Banking and Insurance
10. Performance
Budgeting
11. Managing
the Managers
Furthermore,
Islamic banks need to be careful to tailor the training session to the
specific employee’s needs. Training should be designed to address the
needs of senior management all the way down to the line workers in order
to be most productive.
Islamic
banking needs morally sound customers for its smooth operation. Islamic
value oriented customers are essential for growth in Islamic banking.
Therefore, value oriented customers training may be another main area of
training for Islamic banks.
The
Lecture Method
Quite a
good number of training methods generally used in academic and training
institutions can be effectively applied to personnel development of
Islamic banks. A brief discussion on the lecture method may be relevant
for Islamic banks as well.
Lectures
have several advantages. One instructor can handle a large class. In
addition, little or no equipment is needed. Finally, a well-prepared
lecture can be repeated without any great effort on the part of the
lecturer, thereby allowing large groups of people to be trained on the
exact material in smaller group forums.
Lectures
are especially valuable for introducing a new subject and it allows the
trainees to interact in the process, which would otherwise be very
intimidating to them. Where knowledge is advancing rapidly, textbooks
may not be available. Lectures awaken a critical attitude in trainees.
Lectures can provide aesthetic pleasure inspiring a large number of
trainees in an economical way.
The main
disadvantage is that knowledge gained by passive listening to a factual
lecture, without some participation by the class, is not readily
assimilated, and boredom sets in very quickly. The lecture sometimes
offers no opportunity for class participation and is, therefore, of
little use in providing skills. Thus there are advantages and
disadvantages so a proper mix has to be found in order to be
effective.
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