Compensation Strategies and Employee Job Satisfaction in the Health Sector in Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Health care is important for economic development and personal wellbeing. A healthy workforce increases organization performance by reducing the number of sick leaves, absenteeism, turnover and also improves productivity. Central to the employee’s performance is job satisfaction. Compensation is a significant determinant of whether employees are satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs. In Kenya, the health sector has been marred with strikes and industrial disputes related to health worker compensation. This is not different from Kiambu County, which has inadequate workers, face erratic supply of medical products, and have poor health infrastructure, health facilities, inadequate resources. Given the importance of these factors to job satisfaction in health sector, these challenges may contribute to dissatisfaction. The general objective of the study was therefore to study compensation strategies and employee job satisfaction in the health sector in Kiambu County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the effect of basic pay on job satisfaction in the health sector in Kiambu County, to establish the effect of benefits on job satisfaction in the health sector in Kiambu County, to find out the effect of working condition on job satisfaction in the health sector in Kiambu County and to examine the effect of recognition on job satisfaction in the health sector in Kiambu County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory, Herzberg’s Two factors theory, Equity theory, Alderfer’s ERG theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory. The study used descriptive design. The target population was senior, middle level and support staff of tier 2, tier3 and tier 4 public health facilities in Kiambu County Kenya. The study targeted 584 health workers. The sample size was 20% of this and hence 129 employees were interviewed. Using correlation and regression analysis, the study found that basic pay and benefits do not have statistically significant effect on job satisfaction. However, working condition and recognition have statistically significant effect on job satisfaction. The results implied that to improve job satisfaction among healthcare workers, the county government of Kiambu should focus on intrinsic rewards like working conditions and recognition instead of extrinsic rewards like pay and allowances. To test the reliability of the survey items, the study used Cronbach’s alpha that measures internal consistency of the survey items. The data quality test was done to ensure that the data is reliable and valid for analysis.