Factors influencing the recruitment and retention of staff in local govenment authorities in Kenya

Abstract

The performance of the Local Government Authorities has been on the gradual decline. According to the Omimo Commission, the management of human resources in Local Government Authorities is characterized by inadequately trained staff, overstaffing at lower levels and inexperienced management (ROK 1995). This research therefore sought to establish the current recruitment process used by the Local Government Authorities and identify the factors affecting the recruitment process. It also sought to find ways employed by the authorities to retain the performing employees. Literature review from secondary sources relevant to the study has been done and it entails an overview of the recruitment process, objectives of recruitment, recruitment sources, causes of employee turnover, its effects and how to retain the employees and the conceptual framework . The research design used is the descriptive design. The population consisted of all the employees of the council in job groups 10-20 and all the human resource (HR) managers of the selected councils. Stratified random sampling was used to select the sample of 150 employees and all the HR managers. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire. The study showed that the Local Government Authorities advertise the posts then the candidates are interviewed. The main factors that affect recruitment are tribe and political affiliations. Most of the employees had stayed in the council for long mainly because they live near their family. The employees however said that they would leave the council if they got a better job offer and better career growth opportunities. The ways of retaining the employees by the councils included motivating them, training them and offering promotions.