EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE OF PROGRAMME FOR AGRICULTURE AND LIVELIHOODS IN BUSIA COUNTY, KENYA
Wesonga Lynah Ateya - Masters in Business Administration (Human Resource Management) Kenyatta University, Kenya
Chrispen Maende - Lecturer, Business Administration Department, School of Business, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Employee performance is about the timely, effective and efficient completion of mutually agreed tasks by the employee, as set out by the employer. It is evident that employees are a crucial resource hence it is important to optimize the contribution of employees to the company aims and goals as a means of sustaining effective performance. Better employee performance is realised because of excellent training programs that results to employee inspiration and the fulfilment of their needs. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of training on employee performance in an organization: a case study Programme for Agriculture and Livelihoods in Western Communities (PALWECO) in Busia County. The specific objectives of the study is to assess the role of delivery approaches used at PALWECO on employee performance, to establish the role of training evaluation on employee performance at PALWECO and to examine the effect training need assessment on the employee performance in PALWECO. The study adopted human capital theory and human resource management theory in the development of the literature whereas the conceptual framework consisted of employee performance as dependent variable and training evaluation, training needs assessment and training contents and approaches to delivery as an independent variable. The study utilized descriptive research design with target population comprising of all the 112 employees in PALWECO Busia County. The validity of the research instrument was done using content validity while coronach alpha was used to test reliability. SPSS version was used to carry out both descriptive and inferential analysis. Descriptive statistics entailed percentages and frequencies while inferential comprised of correlation and regression analysis. The findings were presented in form of charts and table. The findings revealed that training need assessment, training delivery approaches and training evaluation had significant influence on employee performance. Overall, up to 61.0% of change in employee performance is significantly explained by employee training. It was concluded that employee training had significant influence on employee performance in PALWECO. It was recommended that PALWECO should also improve their employee training program in line with the present educational and technological changes in order to offer employee training through relevant approach akin to employee characteristics.
