People

Building BNM’s Future-Ready Workforce

Building a future-ready workforce is central to BNM’s mission of promoting monetary and financial stability for sustainable growth. Our efforts span across all segments of our workforce, from early-career entrants to mid-career professionals and seasoned experts. Every generation brings unique strengths that collectively help BNM respond to future challenges. This inclusive approach ensures our whole workforce remain agile, skilled and ready for the evolving financial and technological landscape.

In building an inclusive and sustainable talent ecosystem, attracting new talent and developing our people are critical. So is making leaders stay adaptive in an increasingly complex and dynamic operating environment. In 2025, we therefore focused on strengthening our early-career talent pipeline, deepening central banking business acumen, leveraging technology and AI responsibly and promoting wellness and wellbeing.

Our diverse and gender-balanced workforce, spanning young and experienced talent, supported by targeted capability-building programmes and leadership development efforts, positions BNM strongly for the future. This ensures that we continue to cultivate a deep pipeline of emerging leaders while preserving institutional knowledge and thought leadership for years to come.

Kijang Graduate Program (KGP): Early Career Talent Pipeline

Within our broader talent strategy, early-career programme forms an important initiative. We aim to inspire young Malaysians to view central banking as a career that is meaningful and impactful. Our goal is to attract individuals who are both eager to contribute to nation building and ready to navigate the challenges of a fast-evolving economic and financial landscape.

In 2025, we continued to expand our outreach to young Malaysians through career fairs and engagements with universities and student associations. These platforms offer insights into BNM’s role and the breadth of career pathways available, from economics, policy and research to technology, data science, cybersecurity and communications. Our belief is that talent should not merely be recruited, but inspired, nurtured and empowered to grow within the organisation. And for this, we emphasise on the skills and values needed to thrive at BNM.

The KGP has become an important pipeline for early career talent at BNM since its introduction in 2021. Increasingly, the programme is attracting bright young Malaysians who are eager to work at BNM and contribute to nation building. In 2025, demand soared, recording a 55% increase in applications. Of this, we recorded a 47% increase in applicants mainly from the world’s top 100 universities compared to 2024.

The KGP brings together diverse talents, spanning economics, public policy, technology, data science, education and even literature in our most recent cohorts. This diversity enriches our talent pool and reinforces our commitment on interdisciplinary thinking. The KGP offers three different tracks of structured program; Graduate Analyst, Supervision Graduate Analyst and Digital Graduate Analyst, that runs over a period of 18-months, where graduates rotate across three central banking functions. This enables the graduates to gain hands-on exposure to economic surveillance and policy analysis, financial stability and development, as well as corporate management. These are done under the guidance of experienced mentors. This structured exposure helps graduates understand how distinct functions work together to advance BNM’s mandate, enabling meaningful contributions early in their careers.

Deepening Central Banking Business Acumen

BNM continues to strengthen workforce capabilities. This is necessary to ensure that our talent remains agile, future-ready and equipped with emerging skills essential to central banking. We expanded our technical learning efforts by creating more opportunities for staff to participate in external programmes. These programmes expose them to global expertise and diverse perspectives that enrich our organisational capabilities. Our initiatives also support both the upskilling of existing staff and the accelerated development of new hires with a total of 174 technical training sessions, comprising of 785 learning hours conducted for the Economics, Investment, Supervision, Regulation and Payment Services departments.

BNM also recognises that on-the-job learning and real-life experience are powerful drivers of talent development. This underpins the Talent Mobility Programme, a twelve-month cross-department attachment for staff, that aims to broaden perspectives, promote working together and accelerate professional readiness. In addition, in partnership with the Asia School of Business (ASB), BNM delivers the new Central Banking Business Acumen Programme for mid to senior level leaders. The programme is designed to broaden staff exposure to central banking perspectives and strengthens participants’ appreciation of policy interlinkages, helping them make more informed decision across functions. Collectively, these initiatives form a cohesive approach to developing a capable, adaptive workforce aligned with BNM’s long-term strategic priorities.

Boosting Productivity Responsibly with Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

BNM continues to embrace technology and AI as we head forward. Recognising the need for a digitally proficient and future-ready workforce, we take a proactive, measured approach towards AI adoption. This includes AI-powered productivity tools developed in-house, such as KijangBot, a general-purpose generative AI, and PolicyBot, which supports enterprise knowledge on BNM policies and regulatory documents available on BNM website.

As BNM embraces digital tools including AI, it is vital to strengthen workforce cybersecurity awareness. We have conducted mandatory training, phishing simulations, and ongoing outreach, ensuring employees stay equipped to counter evolving threats and protect BNM’s assets and reputation.

Living Our Values: An Engaged and Healthy Workforce

Creating a workplace culture that helps our people to be at their best is key to support the effective delivery of BNM’s mandates. Building on the momentum of translating awareness into action, 2025 focused on strengthening how positive experiences can be cascaded across the organisation. We want to make sure our values are reflected in everyday behaviours, forming a strong foundation for how we work.

We recognise that meaningful change begins on the ground. We were encouraged to observe staff, including leaders across departments, experimenting practical ways to strengthen everyday behaviours and actions surrounding feedback. To broaden the reach and impact of such efforts, we created safe spaces for them to share their ideas, sparking creativity and collectively improving how we can work in BNM.

To further reinforce culture surrounding feedback, we introduced an in-house communications series to show how we act on staff feedback. This illustrated how feedback should be treated across the organisation whereby we must reflect on it, consider it, and communicate what we did with it. Together, these initiatives encourage experimentation, candour and collaboration. We want BNM to be a place where people feel safe and confident to share their views in shaping better outcomes. By strengthening this culture of empowerment and trust, we enhance our ability to deliver effectively on our mandates.

People perform best when they feel supported in mind and body. Over the years, we have placed strong focus on promoting wellbeing. In 2025, we expanded access to wellbeing support, including professional counselling. We support this with awareness campaigns, training and practical workshops. We introduced the Wellbeing Hub, a one-stop platform that brings together mental health resources in a single, easy to access space, helping staff seek support early, confidently and on their own terms.

Our wellness initiatives focus on meaningful experiences that support employees’ overall wellbeing. These include the BNM Safety, Health, Environment (SHE) and Wellness Week. Through targeted opportunities, staff can take part in a variety of programmes and activities throughout the year, including access to health assessments and screenings, influenza vaccinations, chiropractic sessions and blood donations. Overall participation rate more than doubled, showing strong demand and appreciation of the support offered by the organisation.

Beyond mental and emotional wellbeing, we encourage staying active and healthy through a range of physical activities and events that build camaraderie outside of work. Larian BNM 2025, Karnival Sukan 2025 and Karnival Olahraga 2025 drew strong and widespread participation, showing their value as accessible platforms for staff to show their sporting prowess while fostering team spirit across departments. These initiatives encouraged healthier lifestyles and reinforced the need for balance, reminding our people that strong performance at work goes hand in hand with caring for one’s physical wellbeing.

Driving Purpose Beyond BNM

At BNM, we believe our purpose goes beyond our four walls. Purpose is also about creating meaningful impact by giving back to the community. Volunteering brings our people together to make a real difference, whether it is helping those in need, promoting social wellbeing or contributing to environmental sustainability. These efforts reflect our core values, strengthen collaboration and build a shared sense of purpose across the institution.

In 2025, BNM Volunteers (BNMV) continued to carry out activities that drive positive change. One key highlight was World AIDS Day, HIV Awareness & Support which was done in collaboration with Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) and Malaysian Society for HIV Medicine (MASHM). This programme focused on raising HIV/AIDS awareness for our staff and the public. These efforts not only reduce stigma, but also strengthen support for patients, especially adolescents.

BNMV also played a key role in conserving the environment. BNMV partnered with local agencies and community groups and planted 1,000 Tangkol trees through the Riverbank Tree Planting Program in Tuaran, Sabah to mitigate floods, prevent erosion, stabilise soil and support biodiversity. This initiative reflects our belief that environmental care is a shared responsibility. Our commitment to wildlife and conservation also continues through the sponsorship of Barking Deer, which is also known as BNM’s mascot at Zoo Negara. The programme recorded positive conservation results, including the birth of new fawns, showing the success of the care and support provided. 

Recognition

Our ongoing efforts to make BNM Malaysia’s employer of choice are showing results and gaining recognition. In 2025, we received several awards such as the Best Organisation & Most Preferred Employer 2025 (Life at Work Awards by TalentCorp, GRADUAN Brand Awards, Graduates’ Choice Award 2026 by Talentbank), Best Young Graduates & Most Preferred Graduates Programme 2025 (Life at Work Awards by TalentCorp, GRADUAN Brand Awards). BNM is also listed among Malaysia’s 100 Leading Graduate Employers 2025 (GTi Media).

Going forward, BNM will continue building a workforce that is agile, resilient, ready for the future and driven by purpose. We are committed to creating a workplace where people feel supported, valued and empowered to grow. As we respond to new challenges and opportunities in an increasingly digitally enabled economy, our focus stays the same: to help every member of our team thrive, so together, BNM can make a lasting impact on Malaysia’s future.