Influence Of Short-Term Employment Contracts On Performance Of Health Care Workers At Nakuru County Level 4 And 5 Public Hospitals

Abstract

The study aimed at establishing the influence of short-term employment contract on health workers’ performance at Nakuru county public hospitals. The specific objectives were to; establish the influence of employment continuity and benefits award, level of supervision, employment relations on contracted healthcare employees’ performance at Nakuru county public hospitals. The study was anchored on equity theory as developed by John Stacey Adams and Social exchange theory. Cross-sectional research approach was employed in fulfilling the purpose of this study. The 490 contracted health workers at the PGH Nakuru hospital and the Naivasha referral hospital formed the target population. The study used stratified random sampling technique and from each stratum, simple random technique and census for health workers and hospital administrators respectively. This resulted in a sample size of 220 respondents. To collect primary data a structured questionnaire was used. The coding and analysis of data was done the SPSS 25.0, where it was analyzed utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. Independent variables in this study explained 38% of the variations of the dependent variable. The study found that a unit increase in employment continuity would lead to a .036 decrease in short term contract health workers’ performance where it insignificantly (p=.923>.05) influenced the short term contract health workers’ performance. Further, the study found that a unit increase in benefits award would lead to .646 increase in performance of short term contract health workers’ where it significantly (p=.025<.05) influenced the short term contract health workers’ performance. In addition, the study found that a unit increase in level of supervision would lead to 1.261 increase in short term contract health workers’ performance where it significantly (p=.000<.05) influenced the short term contract health workers’ performance. Finally, the study found that a unit increase in employment relations would lead to .832 increase in short term contract health workers’ performance where it insignificantly (p=.060>.05) influenced the short term contract health workers’ performance. The results imply that the level of supervision was the most significant influencer of short-term contract health workers’ performance followed by benefits award with significance values of p<.0001 and p=.025 respectively. Also, the study found that the employment continuity and the employment relations were insignificant influencers of short term contract health workers’ performance with significance values of .923 and .060 respectively. The study recommends that the hospitals should invest in mentorship programmes aimed at promoting the employment continuity. The programmes would give personal and career growth hence promoting job satisfaction and performance. The study also recommends that the hospitals should come up with a rewarding system that would be based on the performance score of each and every worker serving under each contract package. Further recommends that the level of supervision quality should be improved by improving the evaluation and monitoring approaches which in turn promote the personal and organizational outputs. Finally, the study recommends that the hospitals should abandon the authoritative approach of leadership and adopt horizontal approach which puts away the complexities in the communication and ordering hierarchy employment relations.