HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES IN THARAKA NITHI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The broad objective of the study was to establish the influence of human resource management practices on employee performance in the Public Health Facilities in Tharaka Nithi County. The specific objectives were to: examine the influence of employee training, performance appraisal, employee compensation and employee relations on performance in the public health facilities in Tharaka Nithi County. The study was motivated by the increasing rate of industrial unrest in Tharaka Nithi County Public Health Facilities and insufficiency of comprehensively documented research. The study was guided by three theories: universalistic perspective, human capital theory and contingency theory. The correlation research design was used with a target population of 883 employees in the 92 public health facilities in Tharaka Nithi County. Systematic random sampling was used to select a sample of 275 respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. To establish the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, a pilot study of 43 respondents at Tharaka (Marimanti) District Hospital was conducted. A Cronbach alpha value of 0.860 was attained which exceeded the recommended level of 0.700, thereby indicating reliability. Data collected in the main study was coded and analyzed with aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on the data. F-statistic and T-Statistic were used for testing hypothesis at 5% level of significance. The study established that employee training, performance appraisal; employee compensation and employee relations had a positive statistically significant effect on employee performance with a P-value of 0.003, 0.010, 0.000 and 0.000 respectively. The coefficients of determination for employee training, performance appraisal, employee compensation and employee relations were 0.148, 0.117, 0.198 and 0.207 respectively. The findings of this study will be of benefit to county administrators and policy makers as it informs policy formulation that ensures employee performance in Public Health facilities is highly enhanced. The recommendations of this study include: establishing robust employee training programmes and instituting a full-fledged training unit, practicing all the performance appraisal aspects of human resource management, establishing effective employee compensation schemes and investing in improving and promoting great employee relations.