Abstract:
The Health Sector in Kenya is ranked as one of the major basic needs and as one of the pillars of vision 2030 as well as the constitution, high priority is placed on the provision of health services and service delivery. The determination of priorities in public hospitals systems, include resource allocations, expenditure and human resource in areas of recruitment, selection, training and development, retention, welfare, participation and reward systems. The main objective of the study was to investigate the influence of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on employee performance in the health sector in Kenya. Five theories guided the study; Human Capital theory, Cybernetic theory, Contingency theory, goal setting theory and AMO theory. The key variables of the study were strategic recruitment and selection, strategic training, strategic employee welfare services, strategic employee voice, strategic reward and compensation system and employee performance. The study used descriptive research survey and adopted cross-sectional survey research design. The study targeted all permanent employees of ranks of senior management, middle management, lower management and general staff in the health sector (hospitals). A target population of 1428 from which a sample of 146 was taken was used. A simple random sampling was used in selecting the public hospitals for the study. Proportionate sampling was used in selecting the permanent employees from the hospitals which ensured that the hospital with higher population had more members in the sample which also represented 10% of the accessible population. Purposive sampling was used in selecting the hospitals for pilot study where employees from two hospitals outside the ones selected for the study were used. A pilot study was conducted for the data collection instrument which was pretested before data collection for validity and reliability. Both primary and secondary data methods were used. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. Data was analyzed using The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and presented in tables. The study also adopted correlation and multiple regression analysis at 0.05% level of significance that determined the strength and direction of the relationship of the variables. Findings of the study indicated that the five variables influenced employee performance in the health sector in Kenya. In conclusion the study reveals that the said variables highly, averagely or lowly influence employee performance. From the study findings, the researcher recommends the use, implementation and sensitization of strategic human resource management practices contingent to the health sector that will steer up employee performance..
