INFLUENCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON RETENTION OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN SIAYA COUNTY REFERRAL HOSPITAL, KENYA

Wilfred Ouma Nyagudi

School of Entrepreneurship, Procurement and Management

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

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Dr. Dennis Juma

School of Entrepreneurship, Procurement and Management

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

CITATION: Nyagudi, W. O & Juma, D (2018). Influence of Human Resource Management On Retention of Health Care Workers in Siaya County Referral Hospital, Kenya. International Journal of Human Resources and Procurement. Vol 7 (3) pp 37-81.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of Human Resource Management practices on retention of health care workers in Siaya county referral hospital, Kenya. The objectives were to establish the influence of career advancement, work life balance, work environment and remuneration on the retention of health care workers in Siaya county referral hospital. Herzberg‘s two factor theory, Victor Vrooms expectancy theory and Stacy Adams equity theory provided the framework for analyzing the problem of employee retention.The study adopted a survey research design targeting all the 301 professional health care workers deployed to the Siaya county referral hospital.The population was stratified into several main strata consisting of medical officers, dentists,clinical officers, nurses, rehabilitative personnel, pharmacists, laboratory technologists and radiographers.Data was collected using self administered questionnaires with closed ended questions to a sample of 91 respondents. Duly completed questionnaires from 74 respondents were coded using SPSS Ver. 21 to facilitate descriptive and inferential analysis. Pie charts, frequency tables, means and standard deviations were used to analyze the responses to meet the study objectives. The use of simple and multiple regression analysis enabled the researcher to answer the research questions. Results showed a weak but statistically significant positive relationship between remuneration and retention (F (9.847, df =1, and p<0.05). Similarly, it was revealed that was a significant relationship between career advancement practices and retention (F (15.260, df=1, and p<0.05) existed. Also, a significant positive relationship between work conditions and retention (F (16.612, df =1, and P<0.05) and as well as between work-life balance practices and retention (F (18.224, df =1, and P<0.05). The findings provide an empirical support for the link between human resource management practices and employee retention within County referral hospitals. From the findings it can be concluded that human resource management practices play a significant role in the retention of health care workers in County referral hospital. However it was revealed that the practices adopted to were unsatisfactory. This points to a human resource management deficiency within health care department of County governments in Kenya. These findings have both theoretical, practical, and policy implications for both academia and practitioners of Human Resource management, in Kenya and beyond.

Keywords: Remuneration, Career Advancement, Work life balance, work conditions, employee commitment, staff retention, health workers

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