Bank Islam: Banking on an HR transformation in the cloud to underpin a dynamic workplace where employees reach their potential
Bank Islam puts integrity at the heart of its culture
A pioneer and leader of Islamic banking in Southeast Asia, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad transformed core HR, payroll, and talent management processes in the cloud using SAP SuccessFactors solutions. In doing so, the bank boosted HR efficiency, refined talent acquisition, empowered continuous learning, strengthened HR compliance, and enabled data-driven decisions.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Banking | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | ~5,700 employees |
time-savings improvement in performance management process.
more efficient talent acquisition process.
digitalized candidate experience in recruiting.
Head of Shared Services and Industrial Relations, Group Human Resources, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
Empowering employees to deliver growth in line with Shariah principles
Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (Bank Islam) is the pioneer of Islamic banking in Malaysia, bringing a unique perspective to the financial landscape with a focus on nurturing responsible growth and progress. As Malaysia’s inaugural Islamic bank and the first publicly listed Islamic bank on the Malaysian stock exchange, it provides banking and financial solutions that strictly adhere to the Shariah rules and principles. Offering a range of Islamic financial products and services, including personal and business banking and wealth management, Bank Islam has a network of 135 branches and over 900 self-service terminals across the country. Its commitment remains steadfast toward fostering sustainable prosperity and upholding strong environment, social, and governance values.
Underpinning its growth strategy, Bank Islam’s LEAP25 business strategy is focused on driving sustainability, pursuing new opportunities, accelerating digital initiatives, and enhancing efficiency. At the heart of this transformation is a commitment to building a more engaged, productive, and resilient workforce. The bank wanted to create an environment where every employee feels valued, engaged, and empowered to reach their potential and, subsequently, enhance overall organizational effectiveness.
However, the bank’s outdated on-premise HR system was hindering operational efficiency, leading to business challenges from disparate workflows for core HR processes that lacked integration capabilities and limited self-service tools, reducing employee autonomy. The outdated technology also increased the risk of noncompliance with regulations and cybersecurity policies.
So, when the time came to invest in advanced technologies that unlock the potential of its employees, Bank Islam’s HR operations looked to the cloud, aligning with the bank’s overall commitment to embracing cloud technology–driven innovation for business growth and agility.
Head of Shared Services and Industrial Relations, Group Human Resources, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
Developing a culture of integrity and innovation through learning
To recalibrate its approach to human capital management, Bank Islam invested in the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll solutions, transforming core HR and payroll practices. And with employee learning and development a key focus area, the bank also implemented the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution to boost learner engagement by promoting continuous learning and discovery with blended learning capabilities and personalized content.
Other important areas for transformation involved its paper-based recruiting and performance management practices. To digitalize these areas, Bank Islam adopted the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting and SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals solutions. As SAP SuccessFactors solutions natively ingrate with the core HR system, Bank Islam gets greater workforce data visibility and insights, and its employees benefit from a single mobile-friendly HR solution. The adoption of SAP SuccessFactors also supports a cloud-first digital strategy in its HR operations that aligns with the bank’s ambitious enterprise-wide digital aspirations.
Nurdiyana Abdul Razak, Head of Shared Services and Industrial Relations of Group Human Resources at Bank Islam, comments, “We decided to make the huge jump from on premise to the cloud with SAP SuccessFactors. It gives us a more comprehensive human capital management suite designed to support various HR functions and provides more mobile-friendly and user-centric tools while offering a smooth and intuitive experience. Employees can access the system at any time from any mobile device, placing the power to manage basic HR transactions and learning at their fingertips. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central also enhances HR and employee data management, giving us improved data analytics for data-informed decision-making.”
Nurdiyana continues, “SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central delivers optimal compliance in data security and improves disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness while streamlining social collaboration to support secure real-time information sharing. And last but not least, SAP SuccessFactors allows us to automate manual processes, particularly in recruitment, performance management, and goal management.”
Head of Shared Services and Industrial Relations, Group Human Resources, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
Championing a fresh perspective through increased employee agency
Since adopting SAP SuccessFactors, Bank Islam has realized labor-saving and time-saving efficiencies through automating tasks in areas such as payroll processing, benefits administration, performance, and learning management. This has reduced the manual workload for HR administrators and minimized opportunities for human error, allowing the team at Bank Islam to focus on more strategic activities, particularly in the performance management area.
By successfully digitalizing its talent acquisition process with SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Bank Islam now offers an online candidate experience, while workflows for headcount requisitions, budgeting, job postings, interviewing, and job offers are integrated and paperless. For performance management, using SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals, the bank has automated goal setting and assessment processes, streamlining this once paper-based, manual endeavor.
These important examples underscore how the bank is delivering on its goal to enhance overall organizational agility by empowering employees to focus on strategic work using digital tools in place of paper-based processes.
Nurdiyana comments, “Prior to implementing the solutions, the bank’s recruitment workflows and performance management processes, even goal setting, were manual practices. As paper-based exercises, they were time-consuming to manage and track, and it was difficult to extract valuable data. Using SAP SuccessFactors helps us streamline our HR operations, improving accuracy and enabling more strategic use of resources, particularly in the performance management area.”
Another way Bank Islam is successfully making sure each employee feels valued, engaged, and empowered to reach their potential is through the provision of self-service functionality and learning modules. The bank’s employees can now access HR systems and data, including learning modules from anywhere as long as they have an Internet connection, helping facilitate remote work and support its continuous learning culture. As such, the bank has supported 240,655 hours of employee learning since going live with SAP SuccessFactors Learning. Nurdiyana comments, “From the business point of view, this mobile-friendly, one-stop solution supports the bank’s hybrid and flexible working arrangements for our employees across all locations in Malaysia. Transactions can now be completed remotely without physically being in the office, so it provides a convenient experience for all of us, saving employees a lot of time.”
Nurdiyana adds: “The self-service features give employees more autonomy to consume training modules when it’s most convenient for them as well as manage their benefits, personal information, and payroll details. This helps them feel more connected to the organization, increasing their satisfaction and engagement level at work.”
What’s more, Bank Islam has also automated a promotion workflow with SAP SuccessFactors, allowing off-cycle promotions to be activated and actioned in a digital process. It has also systemized insurance payments to dependents and other beneficiaries in the event of an employee death.
Head of Shared Services and Industrial Relations, Group Human Resources, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
Continuously adopting new capabilities aligned with Islamic values
In terms of what’s next for Bank Islam as it continues to create a dynamic environment where its people can reach their potential, the team is now in the process of implementing story reports and workforce analytics with dashboards. Currently in the testing phase of the deployment, Bank Islam is looking to better understand its workforce dynamics. For example, tracking mandatory learning consumption through workforce analytics will allow learning administrators to identify staff who are not meeting training requirements. They can then assist by putting back-up actions in place to help everyone remain up to date with their training needs.
Bank Islam also plans to explore more functionality within the modules it currently uses and wants to implement the SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development solution. These measures will help the bank align with its future vision and support more robust leadership and learning development capacity, paving the way for its people to realize personal growth opportunities as it expands into new geographies.