Effect of human resources practices on employee engagement in international development agencies in Kenya: a case of United Nations Development Programme, Gigiri branch, Nairobi

Abstract

Successful organizations know that employee satisfaction, performance and employee engagement are considered crucial aspects in the day-to-day operations. The Research seek to offer a significant aspect to the organization to have a competitive edge. The purpose of the study therefore was to establish the effects of Human Resources Practices on employee engagements in International Development Agencies in Kenya a case of United Nations Development Programme in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study was to find out the effect of staff development on employee engagements, to determine the effect of staff wellness on employee engagements and effects of strategic orientation on employee engagement. The study was guided by Herzberg’s Motivation Theory and William Kahn’s employee engagement theory. The study adopted descriptive research design. The study target population was 200 employees in the United Nations Development Programme which included senior managers, middle managers, supervisory staff and junior staff as unit of observation. The study used a sample of 133 respondents. Data collection was primary and therefore administration of questionnaires was an effective tool for the respondents. A pilot test of the questionnaire was undertaken before administration to the respondents. Both reliability and validity test was carried out on the data collection instruments. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics version 26 of the SPSS program. The findings of the data was in the form of percentages, means and standard deviation which addressed the study variables. Data analysis results was presented in tables, graphs and figures. On the other hand, correlation and regression was done to analyze the existing relationship between independent variable (staff training, staff welfare and strategic orientation) and dependent variable (employee engagement). The findings of the study revealed that there is a positive effect of training and employee engagement with a coefficient of determination (R) of o.438. This is because staff training is vital in enhancing the level of employee engagements in an organization. A multiple regression also depicted that staff welfare positively influences employee engagements F (1,41),= 21.977, p<0.001, R2 =0.355). The outcomes implies that better execution of staff welfare policies can highly improve employees engagement in an organization. Finally, there was a significant and positive effect of strategic orientation on employee engagement. The results displayed a strong and positive correlation between strategic orientation and employee engagement r (41)=0.649, p<0.001. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that employee engagement should be improved by putting much emphasis of HR practices.