Influence of wellness programs on performance of the banking industry in Kenya

Abstract

As employees increasingly find themselves in the midst of work-family conflict due to the emerging work demands, the effect of these conflicts may affect employee commitment decisions which in turn may affect organizational performance depending on the manager’s role in supporting the employee to attain a balance. Due to simultaneously longorunprecedentedworkinghoursandupwardtrendofnonstandardworkschedulessuchasworkingintheevenings at night or weekend as a spread of a more globalized 24/7 economy, this has also put considerable strain on workers. Notably satisfaction and customer service being the prime work in the banking sector has evoked changes which consequently have brought changes in work setups. The study objective was to establish the influence of wellness programs on performance of the banking industry in Kenya. This study adopted survey research design using both quantitativeandqualitativeapproaches.Thetargetpopulationwas36,212employeesfrom all43commercialbanksin Kenya focusing on branches in Nairobi. Primary data was collected using questionnaire that had both structured and unstructured questions. The researcher also used descriptive statistics including frequency distribution tables, percentagesandmeasuresofcentraltendencysuchasmean.Inadditiontothis,advancestatisticaltechniqueswerealso consideredparticularlymeasuresofvariationssuchasstandarddeviationandotherslikeregressionanalysistoestablish relationships among variable. The study found that wellness programs were strongly related to performance of the bankingindustry.Thiswasthroughpreventivecare,educationandtrainingonimportanceofwellnessonemployeesas well as through supportive manager. The study recommends that organizations should focus on the use of wellness programs practices as they are necessary to ensure that employees support their objectives.