Influence of Staff Recruitment and Development on Performance of Saccos in Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

The Savings and Credit Co-operative (SACCO) subsector is critical to Kenya's economic growth, since it provides a distinct and crucial role in financial services. Despite this, most SACCOs continue to suffer significant losses, with some even folding, raising questions about the procedures put in place to ensure continuing success. SACCOs in Meru County, in particular, have been plagued by financial scandals and employee-related issues, resulting in poor performance, raising questions about the role of human resource practices in easing these problems. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of human resource management practices on performance of SACCOS in Meru County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to assess the influence of staff welfare practices and employee development practices on the performance of SACCOS in Meru County, Kenya. The study was anchored on Contingency Theory. A descriptive research design was followed by the study. The research was conducted on 24 SACCOs in Meru County, with the target population consisting of SACCO managers, auditors, human resource directors, and operations managers. Questionnaires were used to gather data for the study, which were then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. From the descriptive analysis, it was revealed that the human resource management practices including Staff recruitment practices (x̅=4.46), Employee development practices (x̅=4.40) were adopted to a very large extent in the Saccos. The correlation analysis showed that all the research variables including Staff recruitment practices (r=0.276) and Employee development practices (r=0.535) had a positive effect on the performance of Saccos in Meru County, Kenya. The study recommends that Saccos to engage human resource practitioners’ offices or employee experts in recruiting if they are to meet their objectives. The study recommends that the organizations should undertake job training for their employees, and employee training techniques should be in line with available resources, organizational structure, and organizational culture.