| dc.description.abstract | Public Tertiary Institutions (PTIs) are the Technical and Vocational Training Colleges
that provides skills training to over 70% of school leavers in any country. To play
their roles effectively, PTIs need to attract and retain competent workforce.
Consequently, they can attract and retain employees by offering voluntary benefits.
Employee retention is ensuring that people do not leave institutions voluntarily whilst
voluntary benefits are the non-statutory payments made besides wages and salaries.
The effect of voluntary benefits in the retention of employees is not known since there
is no known research which has been conducted in the area, especially from the
perspectives of non-teaching employees and in educational settings. Past studies on
this have focused on benefits in general without specific attention to voluntary
benefits and its effect on employee retention, thus making it rather difficult to
formulate clear policies aimed at addressing the challenges facing the PTIs. The
purpose of the study was to establish the effect of voluntary benefits on retention of
non-teaching employees in the PTIs in Kisumu County. The objectives of this study
were to: Identify the forms of voluntary benefits provided by the PTIs in Kisumu
County; establish factors that retain non-teaching employees in the PTIs in Kisumu
County; and determine the effect of voluntary benefits on retention of non-teaching
employees in the PTIs in Kisumu County. The study adapted a conceptual framework
with voluntary benefits as the independent variable and employee retention as
dependent variable. The research design were both descriptive and correlation. The
study population was all the 85 non-teaching employees in the two PTIs in Kisumu
County of which 15 were used in questionnaire pre-testing and a saturated sample of
70 respondents was subsequently taken. The study used both primary and secondary
data. Both the Primary and secondary data were collected using structured
questionnaires and from the relevant institutional records respectively. Pearson
Correlation and multiple regressions were used to respectively determine the
association between the independent and dependent variables and to establish the
magnitude and direction of effect of voluntary benefits on retention of non-teaching
employees. The study revealed that: Employee services 94.25% and payment for time
not worked 96.6% were the forms of voluntary benefits provided at the PTIs in
Kisumu County and that job security 77.14%, possibility of growth 50%, institutional
policy and administration 48.57%, and challenging work 47.13% were the main
employee retention factors at the PTIs. Employee retention has significant positive
association with employee services (r=0.805, p=O.OOO),health benefits (r=0.714,
p=O.OOO),security benefits (r=0.334, p=0.005) and payment for time not worked
(r=0.301, p=O.OII). Voluntary benefits significantly predicted employee retention
(R2=0.724, F (4, 65) =46.232, p=O.OOO);with employee services (~=0.581, p=O.OOO)
and health benefits (~=0.390, p=O.OOO)as significant predictors. This shows that other
forms of voluntary benefits were not provided at the PTIs; other retention factors also
help retain employees at the PTIs; and that employee services and health benefits are
the forms of voluntary benefits that enhances employee retention at the PTIs.
Employee benefits are therefore the antidote to employee turnover, thus employers
should provide more of it so as to enhance employee retention. It is hoped that the
findings may be of use to policy makers, human resource consultants and
practitioners, management, and academicians who may develop interest in pursuing
further research in this area. | en_US |
