Enhancing the quality and standard of living as a vibrant community

cultivating a future forward workforce

learning and development at alrajhi group

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alrajhi bank remains committed to providing its employees with opportunities to upskill themselves, accelerate their growth, enhance their competitive edge, boost morale and improve retention rates, collectively contributing towards building a high-quality workforce that powers the bank’s performance. In 2024, aligning itself with the ideals of the Saudi National Vision 2030, alrajhi group continued to invest in learning and development (L&D) initiatives with a blended learning approach inclusive of classroom, virtual, e-learning, on-the-job training, certifications, coaching and mentoring.

The ARB Academy is responsible for training the bank’s employees, and comprises two main schools: The School of Leadership and the School of Banking. The School of Banking focuses on providing the latest and state of the art training with regards to banking and banking products, while the School of Leadership focuses on building the next level of leaders within the bank, covering the progress of employees with comprehensive graduate-to-leadership level development programmes. The Academy’s Learning Management Platform TALEEM makes the online learning journey enjoyable and engaging, with employees able to explore exclusive learning content and benefits with anytime anywhere accessibility. During the reporting period, 9,307 employees accessed TALEEM to enhance their skillsets and capabilities. METAKKED – the AI-embedded gamification app is utilised as part of the learning experience, with over 10,000 employees engaged in interactive gaming experiences that require knowledge on a variety of learning modules and topics to win rewards points. The Academy also continued to partner with best-in-class vendors to conduct tailored development initiatives in line with the L&D agenda for the year.

Through the ‘Knowledge Hub Portal’, the bank’s frontline sales employees were empowered with the necessary knowledge and understanding on all retail products, to better equip them to accommodate queries raised by retail customers, while also achieving strategic cross-selling targets and objectives.

A key objective under the new ‘harmonize the group’ strategy is to ‘Build Successful Careers Across alrajhi group. The HR Group has continuously invested in new learning tools and platforms, integrating the bank’s talent development and growth opportunities to its business strategy, thereby creating exceptional blended learning experiences for employees. This also aids the HR Group to successfully achieve key training targets, which act as the measuring metrics for the progress of this objective.

By carrying out an annual Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) the HR Group plans to meet several set milestones; a short-term target to effectively ensure the percentage of employees trained out of the learning needs analysis (LNA) population reaches 75%; a medium-term target to ensure these 75% of employees have access to continuous learning opportunities to meet current and emerging business demands (i.e. Cross-Selling, Technology); and a long-term objective to achieve the sustainable development of its workforce by implementing personalised learning paths that build longstanding careers.

Every year, the ARB Academy formulates the general framework for the bank’s developmental needs in line with the LNA, and provides a set of strategic training initiatives in line with the business strategy of the bank. Throughout 2024, the Academy strengthened its training initiatives, prioritising the achievement of key strategic goals and addressing identified skill and capacity gaps across the bank’s various business divisions. Training largely falls under four focus areas:

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Regulatory

Being the largest retail Bank in the Kingdom, the bank is committed to ensuring that its employees are certified and accredited to impart sound financial advice to its customers.

Strategy

In order to meet the targeted growth across the new segmented offerings in line with the ‘harmonize the group’ Strategy, the ARB Academy focuses on training sales staff on Cross-Selling opportunities among other focus areas to effectively achieve the bank’s business goals.

Competency

New competency development initiatives were introduced to meet identified skill and capability gaps, to encourage career growth and manage ambiguity.

Domain-specific

Development programmes also continued to be curated according to domain-specific training requirements and launched during the year in review, including new technical certifications, advanced systems accreditations and other regulatory requirements

A total of five mandatory compliance-based training programs have been made available, which includes cybersecurity awareness, counter fraud awareness, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, and data protection, in compliance with the requirements of the Saudi Central Bank and SAMA.

During the year in review, the number of total training hours per employee increased to 45.5 from 39.8 last year, a 14% YoY increase that reflects the banks growing focus on tailored training for each employee based on LNA results.

SAMA certification statistics of alrajhi employees

Certifications	Targeted audience	Certified	Percentage %
Retail Banking Foundations Professional Exam	5,436	5,382	99.01
Credit Adviser Professional Exam	2,976	2,883	96.88
Tahweel Professional Exam	789	746	94.55
Insurance Foundation Certification Exam (Implemented in September 2024)	3,057	357	11.67

Employee training statistics for 2024

	2024	2023	2022	2021
No. of training programmes	1,285	2,773	2,315	1,109
Total no. of participants	12,042	15,295	26,474	15,322
Training days	91,424	101,573	141,547	98,335
Training hours	548,544	609,438	849,284	590,012
Training hours per employee	45.5	39.8	32.1	38.5

Training hours by grade

Employee grade	Total training hours
Senior Management	882
Middle Management	6,207
other	541,544
Total	548,544

Training hours by skill type

Employee grade	No. of employees trained	Training hours
Technical skills	8,436	399,501
Soft skills	3,606	149,043

Employee training by gender

Type	Number of employees			Trainings hours
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Mandatory	7,917	1,728	9,645	107,036	114,141	251,177
Non-mandatory	5,710	1,339	7,049	114,954	115,177	230,129
e-Learning	7,754	1,690	9,444	64,379	15,826	80,205

Employee training by category

Type	Number of employees			Trainings hours
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Senior Management	48	1	49	880	2	882
Middle Management	511	33	544	6,004	203	6,207
Other	9,337	2,112	11,449	392,240	149,215	541,454

The development of future talent

alrajhi bank, in line with its new strategy aims to build a strong pipeline of qualified Saudi professionals, with the HR Group identifying high potential candidates for employment, improving the quality of future recruits while also cultivating skill sets that align with the emerging requirements of the alrajhi group. The alrajhi bank Graduate Development Programme (GDP) annually provides the best-in-class fresh graduates an opportunity to enter the workforce, explore a range of career prospects, and gain unparalleled hands-on experience as part of the alrajhi team. Candidates who successfully complete the Programme are deployed in junior and mid-level roles across the alrajhi group. Several modules and practises were continued due to their success in elevating the GDP programme:

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

GDP Highlights

Approved 4 Graduate Programs with a total intake of 140 graduates, including 1 flagship GDP, 1 IT Development Programs (ITDP), 1 information Security Development Program (ISDP) and 1 Business Excellence Program (BE). The GDP commenced during at 1st of Jan 2025, while the remaining 3 Programmes have initiated the selection process, and are on schedule to commence during Q1 of 2025.
The chosen graduates are facilitated with 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 alrajhi bank with a promising career path and performance-based rewards, with an intent to increase retention.

Awaiting deployment of 140 graduates in junior and mid-level roles following the completion of the programme, bringing the total of recruited GDP graduates to more than 800 since the inception of the programme in 2015.