Human resource management practices and employee performance in tea factories in Nyamira County, Kenya

This paper is an investigation into the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and performance of employees in tea factories in Nyamira County, Kenya. The study covered the aspects of employee welfare programs, team working, training, involvement and performance of workers. The study adopted a quantitative research approach using descriptive statistical model to analyze and present data. A sample of 202 was drawn from 425 employees from all the six factories in Nyamira County. Primary data gathering was by use of selfadministered questionnaire. Quantitative data was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics with multiple regression analysis and content analysis for qualitative data. The findings were presented using means and frequency tables. The findings indicated that a good number of employees were familiar with various HRM practices and that there is a great relationship between human resource management practices and employee performance in tea factories. Majority of the factories have few welfare programs leading to dissatisfaction among employees. Team work is adopted by all the six tea factories and is seen as an important practice in improving employee performance. Performance of workers can be increased by providing employees continuous training and organizing seminars as they face challenges from time to time. Finally, the study concludes that employee involvement is deficient in tea factories. The main reason to this deficiency is lack of appropriate policies and goodwill from the management of the tea factories.