Effect of Employee Management Practices on Employee Performance in Trans Nzoia County Government, Kenya

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between human resource management practices and employee performance in Trans Nzoia County government. Despite receiving considerable funds from the National Treasury and other local revenue, underperformance as a problem among employees characterizes most of the county governments in the country; underperformance in the county is depicted by failure to meet set targets, late coming, unjustified absenteeism, and unsatisfactory revenue collection. The paper specifically focused on the influence of compensation and career management practices on employee performance. The paper is an output of a study that was carried out on “human resource management practices and employee performance” in Trans Nzoia County. The study was guided by Human Capital Theory advanced by Theodore Schultz. It employed a correlational survey design. The target population comprised all the102 employees attached to the Department of Public Service Management in Trans Nzoia County. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the collected data. The regression analysis results indicated that both compensation and career management practices (β1= 0.462, P value=0.000<0.05 and β4 = 0.579, P value=0.000<0.05) respectively had a significant positive effect on employee performance. It was concluded that both compensation and career planning affect employee performance. The paper thus, makes contribution to the extant literature regarding relationship between HRM practices and employee performance by establishing that compensation and career management practices are essential in predicting employee performance specifically in Trans Nzoia County government since a similar study had not been conducted in the area. Furthermore, the study recommends that county governments in Kenya should design effective compensation policy that will ensure employees are compensated according to the value they bring to the organization and the market standards, additionally employees should be allowed to embrace career planning prospects in fast tracking their career goal progress, self-management and professional abilities.