Effect of Non-monetary Rewards on Employee Performance in Homa Bay County Government, Kenya

Abstract

Despite Homa Bay County in Kenya spending 70% of its total budgetary allocation on recurrent expenditures like salaries and allowances, it was still struggling with poor service delivery and staff performance issues. Past empirical studies on non-monetary rewards have not established a link between non-monetary rewards and employee performance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of non-monetary rewards on employee performance in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The study population constitutes 373 employees of HBCG, out of which a sample of 146 respondents was selected using stratified sampling techniques. Management staff, including branch managers, assistant managers, and supervisors of the five Nakumatt branches in the Western region, were selected for the study. A sample of 73 respondents was selected using saturated sampling techniques, while the remaining 10 were used for the pilot study. The findings revealed that non-monetary rewards explained a 62.7% (R² =0.627) variation in employee performance. The study concludes that employee recognition, training, and development are both critical antecedents of employee performance in Homa Bay County, Kenya. The results of the study may be useful for the County Government administration's human resource reward policy formulation that might enhance employee performance and effective service delivery.