EFFECT OF TRAINING ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN THE COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN KENYA: A CASE OF LAIKIPIA COUNTY

Abstract

The current study sought to establish the effectof training on employee performance in the County Governments in Kenyaby taking thecase of Laikipia County. The study specifically sought to establish the effects of training contents,training programs,evaluation of training programs and training delivery methods on employee performance in the County Governments in Kenya. The study was guided by the following theories: Human capital theory,Skill Acquisition Theory, Resource Based View (RBV) Theory and Action Theory. Descriptive survey research wasemployed in thestudy. The study targeted 96 senior, middle and lower management officials in the HR department from each of the 9 ministriesand officials of the Directorate of Human Resources Management and Administration Serviceswhere only 89 respondents were involved in the study. The study adopted a census approach and utilizedstructured questionnairein collecting data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyze the data with the assistance of SPSS statistical tool. The findings of the study revealed that training contents, training programs, evaluation of training programs and training delivery methodshave a positive and significant effect on employee performance in the county government of Laikipia. The study recommends that county governments should focus on enhancing the contents used in training since the practice leads to positive and significant effectson employee performance in counties. The study also recommends that county governmentsshould focus on enhancing training programssince the practice leads to a positive and significant effecton employee performance in counties. This can be achieved byformulating training programs based on training objectives and training itself, selecting specific trainers in different training programs, tying formulation of the training programs with training lesson and preparing trainees for specific training programs. The study furtherrecommends that county governmentsshould emphasize on evaluating training programssince the practice leads to a positive and significant effect on employee performance in the county.This can be achieved by determiningthe effectiveness of corporate training programsthrough employee’sbehavior,basing effectiveness of corporate training programson the results of the program and attitude of the employees, carrying out a simple end-of-course reaction process to assess the effectiveness of the training and obtaining the employees’ opinions immediately upon completion of training programs to assess the effectiveness of the training. The study finallyrecommends that county governmentsshould focus on enhancing training delivery methodssince the practice leads to positive and significant effectson employee performance in the counties.