Work Life Balance and Employee Performance in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning Kitui County Government, Kenya

Abstract

Work Life Balance is the working arrangements that make sure an employee balances between personal and work responsibilities. Poor Work Life Balance is a major risk that poses risks to the well-being of the employees, their performance, and organizational performance. Most of the employees often find it challenging to balance their social life and employment responsibilities. The study sought to examine the relationship between worklife- balance and performance of Kitui county government employees. The objectives of the study were to establish the effect of leave policy on the performance of employees; to examine effect of flexible working arrangements on the performance of Employees; to investigate the effect of welfare policies on the performance of employees and to examine the effect of family responsibilities on the performance of employees of the ministry for finance and economic planning Kitui County government. The study was anchored on the spill over theory and the role theory. The findings of the research would be helpful to the HR managers, government policy makers and scholars and students of HRM. The study adopted an explanatory research design and a descriptive research design. The targeted population was the 207 employees who work in the ministry of finance and economic planning of Kitui county government. They comprised of top level management, middle-level management, and the subordinate staff. The researcher adopted a stratified sampling and simple random sampling to get a representative sample for the research. The sample size was 25% of the target population; that is, 53 employees, 4 from the top management, 11 from middle-level management and 38 from the subordinate staff. The study used a semi -structured questionnaires with both closed-ended and open-ended questions to collect data from the sample. A drop and pick method was employed to administer the questionnaires to the respondents, but they were pre-tested for reliability and validity before being administered to the respondents. The collected data was analyzed and presented using SPSS. Descriptive statistics like frequency distribution was used to analyze the data. The presentation of the data was done using frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs. Moreover, a correlation and multiple regression analysis to determine the correlation between WLB and employee’s performance were conducted. The findings of the study indicated that there is a negative correlation between leave policy and employees’ performance as well as between welfare policies and employees’ performances. Therefore, it was concluded that the presence of welfare and leave policies is crucial; it does not affect performance, but the lack of it may cause a decline in performance. On the other hand, flexible work arrangements and family policies were found to be positively correlated to employees’ performance. The researcher recommended more flexible work arrangements be made available to all employees as long as it won’t compromise on performance. More welfare service such as a professional counselor, recreational facilities, and childcare services should be made available for all employees. Moreover, the county government should consider establishing family holiday where employees and their dependents would be shown a sort of appreciation. This would not only help the employees to reduce work-related stress but would also be motivated to perform better at work. Finally, further research should be conducted in other county governments and over the years to confirm the findings of this study.