The boundaries I manage between people and duties

Our 7,600 takaful agents are independent contractors under agency agreements, registered through the industry's arrangements and paid commission. Our 1,240 employees are not. The distinction matters for tax, employment protection and accountability, and it is easy to blur. A branch manager may treat a leading agent like a team member; an employee may be invited to sell occasionally because a customer is standing at the counter. I work with the chief agency officer and compliance so that employment policies do not quietly extend to agents, and agency incentives do not reach employees whose duty is service. Where employees support the agency force, as our agency development officers do, their pay rests on the quality of that support and on compliance outcomes, not on the commission their agents earn. I do not set agency remuneration; I make sure the boundary is written down and enforced.

Bank Negara Malaysia expects licensed takaful operators to assess whether directors, the chief executive and other key responsible persons are fit and proper, before appointment and on a continuing basis. The assessment belongs to the board and compliance. My part is the people evidence: verified qualifications, employment history, declarations and the record of any concern raised in a role. I also try to prevent a quieter failure, in which the only internal candidate for a key role turns out to lack a required qualification after the incumbent resigns. For each such role we keep a written view of who could be proposed, what evidence would be needed and how long gathering it would take. For staff whose work requires an industry qualification or registration, HR records the expiry date, and a lapse removes the activity rather than being excused by a manager's note.

Handling death, disability and medical claims is skilled work, and it is emotionally demanding. I do not think a wellbeing programme compensates for an unmanageable caseload. We measure open cases per handler, the share of calls involving bereavement and the time each person spends on complex files, and we set limits that supervisors must explain whenever they exceed them. External clinical supervision is available to the bereavement team every month and to other claims colleagues on request. We also protect the right to move out of the most demanding work without that request counting against anyone in a performance review. The claims leadership decides how cases are assessed and paid. My role is to make sure the people doing that work carry a load we would be willing to describe to the board.

Our participants write and call in Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil, and in our Sabah and Sarawak branches sometimes in other local languages. For years we relied on whichever bilingual colleague sat nearby, unpaid and untrained, to explain a claim decision in a language the letter had not been written in. We now test language ability for service roles, pay an allowance only for tested and rostered skill, and schedule language capacity for the hours in which demand actually arrives. Correspondence in Malay and Mandarin is checked by a qualified reviewer before it reaches a family. I do not present this as a diversity statement. A participant who misunderstands a decision about a benefit may lose something real, and a colleague's goodwill is not a service standard the company can rely on.

When work moves between companies, as it did in the Indonesian sharia separation and as it does between our group's businesses under shared-service arrangements, the people question should come before the cost comparison. Who employs the person, whose policies apply, who can direct their work and which board do they answer to? A service agreement can be efficient for payroll or technology. It fits poorly with a control function that must be seen to act for one company alone. I map each role to the entity it serves, then tell individuals everything they need to know before choosing, including the option to stay where that is possible. Transfers should preserve service and terms unless people are told plainly otherwise, and in writing, before they are asked to decide.