Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to examine factors affecting employee productivity in Kenya’s private limited companies in the manufacturing sector. The specific objectives pursued were to establish the effect of institutional factors on employee productivity; to examine the effect of human resources practices on employee productivity; and finally to establish how employee characteristics affect productivity in private limited companies. Based on the specific objectives,
hypotheses were formulated and tested to examine the factors that influence employee
productivity in the selected companies. The study was guided by pragmatism paradigm using a mixture of research designs targeting selected companies in the manufacturing sector. The target population were employee in the companies whose sampling frame was obtained in the respective human resources office. Both primary and secondary data were collected to facilitate the realization of the objectives. Data collected was checked for errors and omissions, coded and analyzed to obtain both descriptive and inferential statistics. The significant factors affecting employee productivity were working environment, training level and experience of the employees, opportunities for employees’ skills enhancement. Others were employee motivation, employees’ level of education, age and gender, among others. The study recommends need for companies to continuously invest in necessary work related infrastructure and employee skills development in structured and gap analysis. Similarly, companies need to put in place
necessary hygiene factors for purposes of enhancing employee motivation. Also recommended is team work initiatives such as team building, reward system among others are necessary to foster good employee relationships in line with system theory.
