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HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT OF SHARIA 
BANKING: PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH

Burhanuddin  Yusuf1

Abstract. Human Resources Development of Sharia Banking: 
Phenomenological Approach. The aims of this study are to finding, 
identifying and mapping the condition and situation of the policy and practice 
of Human Resource Management. This study used a qualitative method with 
phenomenological approach to uncover the professional development of HR qualify. 
Data analysis techniques includes reduction, data display, perform verification, 
and compiling data to draw the conclusions. The study concluded that the 
conditions of management and human resource development three sharia Bank 
in Jakarta refers to the philosophy and principles of Islamic economics as well as 
guided by the vision and mission of sharia banks. This study  find that sharia HR 
professional qualification characterised by  quality of faith, piety, knowledge and 
understanding of finance and business, applying the principles of Islam and has a 
strong commitment to apply the rules of sharia, noble, hard-working, and sincerely 
intelligent accompanied by sincere

Keywords: Sharia Banking, Human Resource Development, Phenomenological

Abstrak. Pengembangan Sumber Daya Manusia Perbankan Syariah: 
Pendekatan Fenomenologis. Tujuan dari kajian ini adalah untuk menemukan, 
mengidentifiaksi, dan memetakan kondisi dan situasi dari kebijakan dan praktik 
manajemen sumber daya manusia. Kajian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif 
dengan pendekatan fenomenologis untuk melihat pengembangan atas kualifikasi 
sumber daya manusia. Teknik analisis data mencakup reduksi, tampilan data, 
verifikasi kinerja, dan kompilasi data untuk membentuk suatu kesimpulan. 
Kajian ini menunjukkan bahwa kondisi manajemen dan pengembangan 
sumber daya manusia di tiga bank syariah merujuk pada filosofi dan prinsip 
ekonomi syariah sebagaimana yang ditunjukkan oleh visi dan misi bank syariah. 
Temuan lain menunjukkan bahwa kualifikasi sumber daya professional memiliki 
karakteristik atas kualitas keyakinan, kesalehan, pengetahuan, dan pemahaman 
akan keuangan dan bisnis, aplikasi prinsip syariah dan memiliki komitmen kuat 
untuk mengaplikasikan aturan syariah, mulia, pekerja kerja, dan cerdas yang 
diiringi dengan ketulusan sikap.

Kata Kunci: Bank Syariah, sumber daya manusia, fenomenologis

First draft: January, 15th 2015, Revision: March, 10th 2015, Accepted: April, 20th  2015
1 Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Jl. Ir. H. Juanda No. 95, Ciputat, South 

Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia.
Email: burhanuddin.yusuf@uinjkt.ac.id



Al-Iqtishad: Vol. VII No. 2, Juli 2015 242

Introduction

Nowadays, especially in the globalization era increasingly intense 
competition among companies, the more we realize the importance of human 
resource management and development of professionalism, including the Islamic 
banking industry in Indonesia. This paper is going to analyze the human resource 
development in three Islamic banks in Indonesia such as Bank of Muamalat, Bank 
of BNI Syariah, and Bank of Syariah Mandiri. In Indonesia, the development of 
Islamic banking system is developed base on dual banking system framework; this 
system is related with Indonesian Banking Architecture. On this system there is 
integration between Islamic banking and conventional banking to make a synergy 
cooperation to help the people for increasing the credit or financing for national 
productive sector.

The delopment of Islamic banking industry faced the tight competition, so 
the competency of human resources on Islamic banking must be improve. Until the 
2014, the Islamic banking industry has 11 Islamic commercial banks, 23 Islamic 
banking unit, and 163 Islamic rural banks.  Islamic banking industry has growing 
rapidly, but in the last year the growth of Islamic banking industry is decreasing.

The Islamic banking industry needs the qualified human resources which 
have multi-knowledge and multi-skills. The qualified human resources are needed 
by the Islamic banking industry to manage the banks to improve the profit of Islamic 
banking industry. The human resources in Islamic banks must to be creative and 
innovative to develop and modified the banking’s product. The human resources 
in Islamic banking industry must to have the competency as an expertise in Islamic 
banking and finance, besides that must to understand the shariah contract, so he 
can modified the product that fulfill the shariah compliance. The Islamic human 
resources must be able to give a services and confince the sociecty that the Islamic 
banking product has suitable with Islamic ethics and principle.  The human 
resources in Islamic banking industry must to have a competency in financial 
investement, banking, soft skills, and sharia. But this condition is rare in Islamic 
banking industry. This problem is established because the limitation of educational 
and training institution on Islamic banking.

The fact shows that almost the human resources on Islamic banks, especially 
at middle or top management is come from conventional banks. It predicted that 
almost 70 percent of Islamic banks employee today is come from conventional 
banks or from non-shariah economics education (Bank of Indonesia, 2012). So, the 
human resources fulfillment that has a complete competency must to do, either by 
qualitative or quantitative ways.



Burhanuddin  Yusuf: Human Resources Development of Sharia Banking  243

Muhammad (2005) stated that the credibility and profesionalty of financial 
institution is developed if they have three elements, such as humanware, hardware, 
and software. Humanware is the persons that manage the institution started from 
highest level to the lowest level. The humanware must suitable either on quality 
side or quantity side. The hardware includes the production tools and physical 
equipment, such as machine, building, and the others. The software includes the 
non-physical things, such as procedure, system, and the others.

The development of human resources is concern with the activity and 
relationship control between the employes. They should show their optimal 
performance. The employes must to increase the competency and the technical skills 
to realize the goals that had been set in planning. The one thing that can be done to 
achieve it is by the human resources training. 

According to the condition above, we can formulate the problem statements 
as follow: first, how is the situation and condition about the Islamic banking 
management in Indonesia? Second, how are the condition and the development of 
three Islamic banks in Jakarta? Third, how are the development’s patterns on human 
resources development in three Islamic banks in Jakarta?

Literature Review

Islamic banking can be defined as a bank that operated based on profit sharing 
system that gives an advantage either for the society or the banks. The Islamic 
banking offers the justice in transactions, the ethical investment, and proposes 
the cooperative values and brotherhood in production, and avoids the speculative 
activities.

The human resources management is the empowerment, development, 
appraisal, the remuneration, and individual management of organization members 
or groups. Besides that, it also related with design and system implementation 
of planning, staffing, employee development, career management, performance’s 
evaluation, employee compentation, and the good relationship in employee 
(Simamora, 2004).

Professionalism is based on the word of profession that has a meaning as a 
job based on skill and educated. Professionalism that the characters of professionals 
employee is a job, or title that must fulfill the certain qualification and personality 
(Komaruddin, 1994). On this research profession is job sector that based on 
educated skills, and certain personality such as honesty, loyalty, and the others. So, 
the professional human resources in Islamic business institution is a human resources 
that have a knowledge and skills in shariah, economics, and business practice.



Al-Iqtishad: Vol. VII No. 2, Juli 2015 244

The development of human resources in Islamic banking is something that 
they have to do. The first job is with the selection of the employee to fulfill the 
position. The development and training existence in Islamic banking is obligatory, 
this things in the way to increase the productive working culture. The professionalism 
of human resources in Islamic banking is something that very strategi to increase the 
customer’s loyalty and to make an efficient production process in Islamic banking 
industry.

One fundamental ways to make Islamic banking becomes credible is must 
be supported with human resources that qualify, competence, and professional. 
Professional means that the person needs special knowledge and skills to do that 
job. Profesionality means that a practical values of competence skills to manage 
the organization and do the job with effective and efficient (Muhammad, 2005). 
Profesionality can be measured just from physical appreance, but the most important 
show by the real performance from the activities. The Islamic and professional 
human resources have the qualification and competency that expertise in economics, 
banking, finance, and shariah. 

In Indonesia the human resources problems is very complex, there are 
several indicators that show this things, such as: first, the difference between human 
resources competency with market of worker. Second, the distribution of populations 
is not equal. Third, the growth of workers is larger than the job’s vacancy. Fourth, 
the asymmetric of public services need with the worker. Fifth, the market worker’s 
information is not symectric. Sixth, the unemployment and poverty that makes a 
lower education and health.

There are several studies that have discussed about the human resources 
development. Eka Purwanda and Zaenal Muttaqien (2012) show the increasing 
Islamic human resources competency with the Islamic bank’s leadership that visioner 
and adaptive. Muhammad (2003) show that the advantage of Islamic finance 
institution is determined by the credibel’s human resources. We have an increasing 
empowerment strategy with the entrepreneurship and leadership empowerment in 
Islamic financial institution. 

Siswanto (2012) conclude that to increase the advantage of Islamic bank’s 
human resources is through the implementation of Qur’an-based human resources 
management. The result from this research is the implementation of Quran-based 
HRM and the employee satisfaction is positive. According to the Siswanto’s research, 
this paper are going to show the human resources development problems using a 
phenomenological approach, so we expected that the increasing of human resources 
competency based on Quran can established the advantage of human resources 
Islamic banking.



Burhanuddin  Yusuf: Human Resources Development of Sharia Banking  245

Tri Wikaningrum (2011) had identified the policy and development practice 
of human resources in Islamic banking and the influence to company’s performance. 
The quantitative descriptive variable is the policy and human resources development, 
attitude, selection, training, and performance evaluation. The result shiw that the 
practice of human resources management is still not optimal, the training is still not 
optimal, the evaluation performance that not oriented on employee development. 
This paper are going to anaylize the influence of practical and policy in human 
resources management with the company’s performance and employee development. 
So this paper are going to show the human resources development condition in 
Indonesian Islamic banking industry.

Methods

The research method is using qualitative methods using the phenomenological 
approach. This approach is selected because the research is targeted to identifying 
and mapping the comprehensive perception of respondent according to human 
resources development at three Islamic banks in Jakarta. So, with this method we 
hope that we can get the comprehensive information about the research subject to 
analyze the human resources development program in Islamic banks.

There are several steps on this approach, such as (Husserl, 1982): the first 
step on this research is intentional analysis. The second step is doing the epoche. 
The third step is eidetic reduction. The fourth step is the researcher concluding 
the research result to answer the question about the form and practice of human 
resources development in Islamic banks. The research framework can be shown on 
Figure 1.

 

 

Epoche to human resources 
management in Islamic banks 

Epoche policy and management in 
Islamic banks 

The analysiz of human resources 
development in three Islamic banks  

  

1. Record and documentation 
2. Manager and staff 
3. The community of shariah 

economy 

Eidetic to human resources profesionality 
at three Islamic banks 

The human resource development at 
three Islamic banks using 

Phenomenological approach 

 

Figure 1. The Research Framework



Al-Iqtishad: Vol. VII No. 2, Juli 2015 246

The Phenomelogical is described as what the feeling of individual or group 
related with his perception and experience. The feeling that established is called as 
phenomena (Prianti, 2011). The data that used on this research is based on manager 
and staff at three Islamic banks, such as Bank of Muamalat, Bank of BNI Syariah, 
and Bank of Shariah Mandiri. Also the data come from the interview with Head 
of Islamic Bank Department at Bank of Indonesia. To get depth information, this 
research using focus group discussion in several bank locations.

Moleong (1989) explain that on analysis data process in general have three 
relatied activities, such as: the data reduction, the data show, and the data verification 
to make a conclusion. On data analysis, the researcher doing the data reduction, 
after that show and compile the relevant data. Next is the data verification to make 
a conclusion. 

Discussion

From the focus group discussion find there are several problems that need 
the solution, such as: first, the incomplete regulation for Islamic bank, this thing 
is become the problems so the Islamic banks can’t operate optimally based on its 
characteristics.  Second is the problem about the quality of human resources. Third 
is the problem about infrastructure.

Bank of BNI Syariah had recruitment for fresh graduate using professional 
hire institution. The  human resources development based competency through 
recruitment process to all out performance, training, remuneration, and industrial 
relations. The target in human resources is maximizing the working culture, trust and 
brotherhood in all shariah employees. In Bank of Syariah Mandiri, the recruitmen 
process has three criteria, such as fresh graduate, professional employee for officer 
position, and management development program for fresh graduate. Every criterias 
has different competency according his job’s position. The educational background 
can be varied, such as engineering, mathematics, economics, and the others. With 
the variation of educational background of course will be have an impact the 
competency’s gap in understanding the banking product and operational.

Bank of BNI Syariah do the job evaluation every two until three years, this 
is suitable with business challenger. Besides that, also do the job analysis to see 
the suitableness job position with remuneration and assessment. The employee 
development’s program is to make the trustworthy and brotherhood culture in 
working environment.  The program and training is made based on the competency 
gap according the job’s position. Standardized training curriculum is made based on 
the need on every job’s position.



Burhanuddin  Yusuf: Human Resources Development of Sharia Banking  247

Bank of BNI Syariah to do the evaluation for their employee is using 
performance appraisal evaluation. This method is using performance management 
system to increase the services and performance from Bank of BNI Syariah. This 
system is using the key performance indicator with computer system. The reason of 
application this system is to make an appraisal performance to be more accurate and 
can to go the effectivity of organization.

Bank of Shariah Mandiri doing the evaluation and revition through 
enhancement program, such as: certification program, public training, scholarship, 
and the others. The evaluation is supported by e-learning implementation that can 
be accessed by every employee. One form of evaluation program is assestment system 
in every level, such as middle management development program. If the employee 
can’t pass the passing grade, so the employee must to involve the refreshment 
program. This refreshment program is doing every three month. Evaluation on this 
system is using the key performance indicator.

Bank of Muamalat Indonesia has fulfilled the officer need through his 
learning center in Muamalat Institute. The Muamalat Institute has doing the 
human resources quality that have a competency in Islamic banking practice, and 
also understand the shariah knowledge. The development of human resources is 
based on the organization needs and industry. The routine program in human 
resources development, such as: internal training, the periodical competency exam, 
the human resources development through MODP. So, it will create a new leader 
from internal organization.

From the discussion and interview we can make a several organization and 
human resources strategy that can be applied in Islamic bank, such as: first, realized 
the job analysis in every job’s position either in head office or branch office. Second, 
the cooperation with academic institution to fulfill the human resources need. Third, 
the development and increase the human resources competency to fulfill the human 
resources need either in quality and quantity, so the banks can develop his business. 
Fourth, the development of human resources information shariah that based on 
competency.

The professional human resources at Islamic bank must to have the 
qualification and competency in economics, banking, and finance in one side, and 
combine it with the shariah knowledge. Because of that, the human resources at 
Islamic bank must to develop that competency. 

The expertise of human resources will be developed in a good way, if they have 
the following criteria and type as follow: first, the shariah expertise that understand 
the economics, banking, and finance. Second, the economics, business, and finance 



Al-Iqtishad: Vol. VII No. 2, Juli 2015 248

expertise that understand the shariah knowledge. Third, the shariah, economics, 
banking and finance expertise.

According to Muhammad (2005), profesionality is an element key in Islamic 
bank’s management. Nabi Muhammad SAW said “that Allah will be greatfull if one 
of you doing his job in a professional way” (HR. Baihaqi). The professional means 
that the individual will be in high motivation to finish their job in excellent result 
using the competency that he has.

There are several implications based on this research for Islamic banking 
industry, such as: first, should consider seriously and consequently the contribution 
of human resources studies to professionalism development. Second, give the chance 
to higher education institution to have managerial studies that can give a benefit to 
knowledge and practical development. Third, give a full attention with the human 
resources development condition at Islamic banks with the integrated framework of 
banking and shariah ethics. Fourth, do the cooperation between higher education 
instutiton and Islamic banking industry to develop the professional human 
resources.

Besides that, there are also several implications for regulator either for Bank 
of Indonesia or Financial Service Authority, such as: first, facilitate the policy that 
can support the human resources development at Islamic banking industry. Second, 
facilitate to decrease the implementation trap of integration knowledge (such as 
shariah knowledge with banking and financial knowledger) in every Islamic bank. 
Third, support the sinergity between the higher education institutions with the 
Islamic banking industry.

For higher education institution have to do several systemic and continuity 
actions in a framework of: first, mapping, organizing, facilitating the students need 
from the beginning of study. Second, formulate and response the human resources 
problems in a framework of academical studies. Third, support the students to have 
a contribution research to answer the Islamic banking industry problems.

This research also has an implication to the government either ministry of 
national education and culture or ministry of religious affair to keep in touch with 
the development of human resources for Islamic banking and financial institution 
need. The support can be formulated as curriculum since the high school until the 
university, so the Islamic economics and finance can develop rapidly in society.

Conclusion

This research find that the development and management from Islamic 
Banks has suitable with Islamic banking standars, because has fulfill the philosophy 



Burhanuddin  Yusuf: Human Resources Development of Sharia Banking  249

of Islamic economics, legal standing, vision and mission, the development policy, 
strategic target, etc. Besides that, it had established the human resources department 
with the supporting action from Bank of Indonesia in every Islamic bank. The 
qualification of humas resources in Islamic bank is based on Al-Qu’ran and sunnah. 
The human resources had passed the professional selection, after that the employee 
has a chance to follow the training either the soft skills training or hard skills training 
to improve the competency. The recruitment have three important criteria, such 
as: fresh graduate for tecnichal position, experience employee for officer position, 
and management development program for fress graduate that can fulfill the officer 
position. 

There are several actions for decreasing the difference in human resources 
qualification, such as: open rectruitment at the university, do the training and 
monitoring, the banking staff program, micro banking academy, etc. The development 
pattern of human resources in Islamic banks basically divided into two, such as: the 
professional qualification based on shariah side, and the professional qualification 
based on tha business and banking side. The evaluation model and human resources 
in Islamic banks has eight substantial elements and procedures, such as job evaluation, 
job analysis, spiritual side, learning center, e-learning, refreshment, enhancement 
program, and value foundation. On this model, employee is not only as a target but 
also has a subject to evaluation process and human resources development.

The professionalism of human resources development in Islamic bank is 
should be: first, always integrated and empowerment of human resources principle 
to support the basic action, systematic, and contextual in the way to increase the 
effectivity and efficiency in Islamic banks; second, Islamic banks and conventional 
banks is should be together to improve the strategic role in economy; third, the 
consistency to have their own identity as Islamic business entity.

   
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