Aligned with its overarching Bank of the Future (BOTF) Strategy, Al Rajhi Bank’s Human Resource (HR) agenda continued to be anchored to its well nurtured reputation of being one of the most preferred and sought-after employers of the Kingdom. The year 2023 saw the Bank’s HR Group continuing its momentum from 2022, fast adopting globally benchmarked HR practices and technology in a highly competitive job market to attract, develop and retain best-in-class talent capable of driving the organisation’s ambitious strategic goals. The HR Group collaborated with all business divisions to deliver future-ready human resources powered by best-in-class HR practices, thereby effectively meeting business challenges.

Under the BOTF Strategy objective of being a preferred employer, Al Rajhi’s HR Group focused on a few key areas during 2023:

• Competency-driven talent acquisition
• Nurturing talent through planned capacity building and development with motivating career progression
• Creating an attractive employer brand through employee value proposition
• Driving a performance-driven culture coupled with robust performance management framework and a performance-based rewards proposition
• Increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty by effectively and rapidly actioning employee engagement survey results
• Integrating future-ready HR Technology
• Instilling a digital and agile mindset and culture.

With the successful implementation of the targeted strategic initiatives under each focus area, the HR Group effectively strengthened best in class HR practices and frameworks to build an industry-redefining employee value proposition, over-achieving a majority of the BOTF human resource KPIs in 2023.

Furthermore, the Bank’s HR Strategy continued to align itself with ambitious Vision 2030 targets set by the Kingdom – and its Human Capability Development Programme in particular – empowering and equipping its people to complement the overall efforts of the Kingdom during the year in review. Such efforts include Graduate Development Programmes, emphasis on feminisation with promising career paths for female employees, strong Saudization initiatives and well-structured senior Saudization programs to build competent Saudi leadership, all contributing towards driving the vision of the Bank and that of the Kingdom.

The workforce profile of al rajhi group

Al Rajhi Group’s consolidated human capital remains its engine for successful value creation, with the 20,878 strong team demonstrating great adaptability to the evolving business landscape and job requirements, while driving loyalty and brand value among its customers.

The acquisition and retention of top-tier talent

Talent acquisition, particularly pertaining to talent with future-ready skill-sets and capabilities continued to be a challenge in the Kingdom, with the demand over-running the supply in the job market creating scarcity, and resulting a contest for talent. The continued diversification of the Saudi economy during the year in review has also made career paths in other rapidly growing industries highly appealing to skilled and qualified individuals in Saudi Arabia, making the retention of high-potential talent more challenging. Resulting in increased turnover and a rise in market value of potential talent has also increased overall staff cost.

Al Rajhi Bank hired 830 new employees including 22 professionals at senior management level, filling identified vacant positions during the year in review. The Bank recorded a 97% success ratio in senior management offer acceptance, a testimony to the unparalleled employee value proposition offered at Al Rajhi. The Bank participated and sponsored several key career fairs and events during the review period, resulting in highly positive feedback from potential candidates, further strengthening the Bank’s employer brand, thereby resulting in a significant increase in candidate applications.

A number of improvements were made to Al Rajhi Bank’s onboarding process during the year in review. These included:

• A Welcome Kit
• Opening a new and exclusive ‘Staff Banking Account’ through the Al Rajhi banking App
• Digital hospitality with Urpay wallet
• Introduction to the Buddy Programme to connect with an allocated existing employee for support and fellowship

With the implementation of Al Rajhi Group’s internal mobility platform ‘Nomu’, the recruitment process was also directed inwards to explore and utilise the Group’s existing talent pool across the Bank and its subsidiaries. Total visits on the Nomu platform at the close of the year exceeded 17,000 – marking the success of this initiative.

Al Rajhi Group also continued to strengthen its reputation as an equal opportunity employer, contributing towards the Kingdom’s feminisation targets by empowering and adding value to the role of women in the workforce. Al Rajhi Bank focused on creating female-friendly as well as female-only job opportunities, with the Contact Centre in Qassim staffed by only females. In 2023, Al Rajhi Group’s female employee ratio increased from 28% to 30%, a significant achievement in line with the Group’s diversity and inclusion KPIs. The first female only IT Development Programme (ITDP) was launched during the year in review, and will be further detailed in the Learning and Development Section. The Bank has well-established systems in place for employees to report any incidents of discrimination, with necessary disciplinary actions implemented based on the approved disciplinary procedure. There have been no incidents of discrimination recorded during the year in review.

Talent management

Globally, the ongoing evolution in talent management practices demonstrates an increased emphasis on employee wellbeing, diversity and skills development. Keeping on par with global trends and understanding the need for flexibility and progress, Al Rajhi Bank incorporated a few strategic changes to its Talent Management and Leadership Development Framework. Given below are the highlights of 2023:

Employee remuneration and other benefits

A new set of Banks Remuneration Rules issued by SAMA came into effect from 01 June 2023, superseding the previous compensation rules issued back in 2010. The Al Rajhi Bank Rewards Team worked closely with HR Governance, the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) and other stakeholders to revamp the Bank’s Remuneration Policy to meet with the new guidelines, implementing necessary actions across the Bank and its subsidiaries to be fully compliant with the new rules. The new Remuneration Policies were reviewed and approved by the respective Nomination and Remuneration Committees and the Board of Directors, in line with regulatory requirements.

Based on the continuous evolution of business and the market conditions, the performance-based variable incentive and remuneration programmes were revamped and enhanced in 2023 to maintain employee motivation, whilst ensuring strict adherence to all rules and regulations pertaining to remuneration frameworks.

The Rewards team continued to work closely with the Performance and Talent Management functions to implement the Bank’s Performance and Talent management initiatives, promoting and recognising employees who meet the Bank’s robust career progression criteria. The Bank has a clear practice of making sure no employee is hired below regulated minimum wages. Additionally, Al Rajhi Bank does not have part time or temporary employee categories; all permanent employees and any insourced employees from any of the subsidiaries enjoy all applicable benefits and facilities.

The 2023 financial year saw Al Rajhi Bank continue to make celebratory payments to employees on special occasions, rewarding 5060 employees in total as at the end of the year by celebrating personal milestones including marriage, the birth of a child, performing the Hajj pilgrimage and educational achievements, while also funding medical insurance upgrades as necessary for individual employees. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Al Rajhi Bank also extended his well-wishes to employees on their marriages and the birth of a child, while also reaching out to encourage employees receiving medical care and treatment. Al Rajhi Bank continued the Vacation Allowance of One Basic Salary during 2023 to further strengthen the bank’s Employee Value Proposition.

A number of initiatives were also directed at encouraging a culture of saving and investment among employees of Al Rajhi Bank and its subsidiaries; Savings Scheme 2 - the two-year savings programme launched during the previous financial year saw the participation of 4,400 employees in 2023. The Bank also launched the exclusive Alwalla Fund in 2023, a Private Fund providing employees promising investment opportunities.

Parental leave by gender 2023	Female	Male	Total
Number of employees that were entitled to parental leave	102	649	751
Number of employees that took parental leave	102	642	744
Number of employees that returned to work in the reporting period after parental leave ended	101	642	743
Number of employees that returned to work after parental leave ended that were still employed 12 months after their return to work	100	634	734
Return to work and retention rates of employees who took parental leave	100	634	734

HR Business Partners

HR Business Partners continued to play a crucial role in actively integrating the HR Group’s people agenda with the Bank’s ambitious strategic growth plans, enabling the successful achievement of business goals and targets during the year in review. Liaising between HR and the Bank’s business verticals, HR Business Partners provide structured HR platforms and frameworks as a one-stop focal point for employees to progress in their careers by aligning with business needs. This deep understanding of the business makes Al Rajhi Bank’s HR Business Partners act as ambassadors of driving the overall HR Strategy to ensure maximum benefits are enjoyed from such strategic HR interventions across the business.

HR governance

The Al Rajhi Group upholds recognised standards and principles for labour practices, and strives to ensure safe and fair working conditions and practices through regularly reviewed policies, nurturing a work environment where employees feel protected and encouraged. The HR Governance Department was further strengthened during the period under review to support the Bank’s transformational journey, and proactively act as the second line of defence for the HR Group by providing assurance on matters of compliance with all regulations and laws.

The Internal Company Bylaw was updated to ensure better clarity and awareness on the governance structure for the benefit of employees. The Bank’s petition submission process was also improved by streamlining the Bank’s Petition Committee procedures, allowing any and all employees the ability to submit a petition for consideration by the Bank.

The Bank continued to strengthen ties with regulatory stakeholders during the year in review, demonstrating the Bank’s long-standing commitment to engaging with relevant regulatory bodies, continuously revising and enhancing its HR policies and procedures to ensure strict alignment with regulatory updates and necessary business requirements each year.

In line with the Bank’s Corporate Governance Framework, all policies including the HR Policy, which is designed based on regulatory, business and strategy ambition requirements, is approved by the Board of Directors. Clear delegation of authority is mandated by the Board, empowering the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and the Chief HR Officer to effectively implement the HR Strategy and necessary policies and procedures across the Bank and its fully-owned subsidiaries.

Apart from the recently issued Banks Remuneration Rules, Al Rajhi Bank was required to comply with several additional new regulations implemented by SAMA and other regulators, where the bank was required to comply and make necessary internal policy/procedures updates and create appropriate actions and awareness to achieve adherence to the new rules and regulations. These included:

• Disclosing annual training data in accordance with procedural guidance in the QIWA platform based on the new resolution issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development coming into effect.
• Achieving minimum completion rate on SAMA certification and complying with the varying requirements expected from the regulator during the year.

Employee engagement and communication

With a Whistleblowing Policy, Grievance Policy and other modes of communication firmly in place, Al Rajhi Bank provides safe communication channels for whistle-blowers, including both an anonymous hotline and email address, allowing employees to report their concerns from outside the workplace. For grievances, there are special channels where employees are able to submit grievances, which will be escalated to the relevant parties for immediate and appropriate action. Employee engagement was further improved by enhancing existing communication tools and channels during the year in review. The Group’s employee communication channels include:

• Annual Employee Engagement survey
• Senior management meetings and messages
• Employee email updates
• Circulars
• HR internal communication messages
• Periodic news broadcasts
• Whistleblowing and grievance channels
• HR self-service mobile app
• HR hotline
• Town-halls.

In addition, other interactive events such as The Annual Roadshow, Strategic Off-sites, CEO Recognition Awards, Coffee with CEO, and regular branch visits by Head Office Seniors were all aimed at enhancing employee engagement and morale during the reporting period.

Any and all organisational changes impacting the group’s employees are communicated in alignment with relevant labour laws. The Bank also capitalises on its digitised HR systems as communication channels to regularly update employees with such relevant changes.

Following the feedback from the annual employee engagement surveys conducted in 2022, action plans were rolled out during 2023 to address areas highlighted for improvement. Some of these initiatives included improvements across the Performance Management function with enhanced system capabilities to promote more autonomy and transparency; formalising agreements with local and global educational institutions to enrich learning curriculums and improve Learning and Development benchmarks; and creating structured development opportunities to enhance employee mobility and promotions, thereby improving the overall Talent Management function. All arrangements are in place to carry out the 2023 Employee Engagement Survey by the end of the year in review.

Learning and development

During the year in review, Al Rajhi Group invested in learning and development (L&D) solutions with a blended learning approach inclusive of classroom, virtual, e-learning, on-the-job, certifications, coaching and mentoring. The Al Rajhi Academy enhanced its training programmes during the year in review, focusing on meeting several strategic objectives while also bridging identified skill and capacity gaps across the Bank’s business verticals. The training largely fell under four areas of focus:

SAMA certification statistics of Al Rajhi Employees

Certifications	Targeted Audience	Certified	Percentage
Retail Banking Foundations Professional Exam	5,449	5,313	97.50
Credit Adviser Professional Exam	2,986	2,773	92.86
Tahweel Professional Exam	784	704	89.79
Insurance Foundation Certification Exam (Launched 07/23)	3,300 (Sales Channels)	369	11

A total of 9,811 employees accessed the Academy’s Learning Management System TALEEM during the year, enjoying and exploring exclusive learning content and benefits. Furthermore, two training modules, namely the Anti-Fraud training awareness programme and the General Cybersecurity Awareness programme, were both digitised and added to TALEEM. The two new training modules were also added to METAKKED – the AI-embedded gamification app used by over 10,000 employees to win rewards points by answering questions under a variety of topics. An ESG-based micro learning video recording was also added to TALEEM to increase employee awareness and interest in the Bank’s commitment towards upholding good ESG practices.

The Academy continued to partner with best in class vendors to conduct tailored development initiatives in line with the agreed L&D agenda, while also formalising agreements with Top Local Universities for cooperative training that will provide students with valuable skills and insights to improve their employment readiness.

The development of future talent

In line with the BOTF Strategy of building a strong pipeline of young Saudi talent with future-ready skills to drive the Bank’s ambitious strategic imperatives this year and beyond, Al Rajhi Bank onboarded a new batch of best-in-class fresh graduates through a rigorous selection process for the Graduate Development Programmes (GDP) in 2023. The comprehensive development programme annually grooms a select group of youth to meet the Bank’s evolving business, technical as well as leadership requirements, following up by deploying the Graduates who successfully complete the GDP in junior and mid-level roles across the Bank.

Each year, the scope and design of the GDP is reviewed and updated accordingly, ensuring it is kept current and relevant to address emerging talent requirements. In 2023, a number of new modules and practises were introduced to further strengthen the programme:

• Banking 101 for IT Professionals
• Digital and Fintech Certification - by reputed external firms
• Robust ‘Rotation process’ with Pre and Post evaluations

2023 Highlights in Graduate Development:

• Approved 5 Graduate Programs with a total intake of 140 graduates, including 2 flagship Graduate Development Programs (GDP), 2 IT Development Programs (ITDP), and 1 Business Excellence Program (BE). 1 GDP and 1 ITDP Programme commenced during 2023, while the remaining 3 Programmes have initiated the selection process to commence during Q1 of 2024.
• First female batch of IT Development Program (ITDP) with 30 female graduates inducted primarily for the Digital business line. This programme is considered a high-impact initiative that contributes towards significantly increasing Al Rajhi Group’s female employee numbers through well-structured development programs with assured and rewarding career progression.
• Graduation events to celebrate the successful completion of the programmes with a formal graduation ceremony graced by the attendance of senior leadership, to recognise the dedication showcased by the Graduates, and to provide motivation and direction for their continued career growth within the Al Rajhi Group.
• Engagement sessions with the Talent Development Team to provide clarity on development journey and career path, building continuous engagement and encouraging clear communication to request any further coaching and counselling throughout their journey.
• Focus group sessions conducted to understand the needs of the new generation and accordingly shape the 42-month journey as a graduate at Al Rajhi Bank with a promising career path and performance-based rewards, with an intent to increase retention.
• Awaiting deployment of 150 graduates in junior and mid-level roles following the completion of the programme, bringing the total of recruited GDP graduates to 606 since the inception of the programme in 2015.

Embracing and fast adopting HR-Tech

Technology and innovation continued to play a catalytic role in HR during the year in review; Al Rajhi launched the internal mobility platform ‘Nomu’ in 2023, a virtual job board that provides access to all employees across Al Rajhi Bank and its subsidiaries to explore and apply for new job opportunities within Al Rajhi Group. The platform is able to access and display employee skills and experience, and facilitates easy application and progress tracking. The platform also allows for employee referrals by their colleagues.

More features were added to Al Rajhi Bank’s Recruitment and On-boarding System during the year in review with a number of enhancements to the Talent Acquisition Process; the Offer procedure was fully automated, as was the new Staff Bank Account opening, which is automatically executed following new employee on-boarding - yet another process that has been further improved to increase efficiencies and deliver a seamless on-boarding experience.

SAHL – Al Rajhi Bank’s employee self-service app – also underwent a number of upgrades in 2023; the enterprise version of SAHL customised specifically for Al Rajhi Bank was launched in order to enable more services and features, remaining the single point of contact and communication for Al Rajhi employees. The new and enhanced version of SAHL improved the employee value proposition by providing a customised and enriched user experience for employees when accessing HR self-services. The employee loyalty and benefit app Testahl was also integrated as part of the upgraded SAHL app. The attendance tracking function through geofencing was extended to District Managers, who could utilise the SAHL mobile app to easily and efficiently record their attendance during their respective branch visits.

The Bank automated its Incentive Calculation process with a dashboard for viewing the incentives, with an open channel for employees to raise their concerns or direct complaints on their calculated incentive amount. The nomination and evaluation process of candidate requests for supervisory positions in branches was also automated during the year, with candidates earning the highest evaluation points according to programmed criteria being automatically selected for the position.