Recruitment Practices And Staff Performance In Public Universities

Abstract

Recruitment, as a human resource management function, is one of the activities that impact most critically on the performance of any organization irrespective of its size and location. Public Universities, known to train professionals that exhibit transformative leadership and successfully run blue-chip companies have equally suffered from rampart industrial unrest and human resource malpractices across Kenya. Could it be a unique trend of organizational deviance that could be reflecting absence of a well executed staff recruitment practice? While it is understood and accepted that poor recruitment decisions continue to affect organizational performance and limit goal achievement, knowledge about this aspect in Public Universities remains scanty. The aim of this study was to address this gap by evaluating how recruitment practices affect performance of administrative staff in Public Universities using Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya as a case reference. A cross-sectional survey design was employed while sampling strategy was a blend of multiphase, stratified and purposive sampling. A sample size of 124 out of 1150 comprised mainly of administrative staff was used and that a questionnaire was the principal tool of data collection. Results were analyzed using frequency tables, mean, standard deviation and simple linear regression. The study found that a recruitment policy existed at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya and that both external and internal recruitment practices were used to recruit employees at the University. However, it was noted that most of the university employees are recruited through media advert, internal advertisement, through transfers and promotions. The results of the regression indicated that recruitment practices are a significant predictor of employee performance, which was explained by 32% of variance and a moderate relationship captured by beta weight value of 0.57. On effectiveness of the recruitment policy, only 30% rated it as effective while 62% were indifferent and 8% rated it ineffective. The study concluded that although a significant relationship between recruitment practices and employee performance existed, it’s effectiveness and therefore positive impact on employee performance depended on employees’ positive perception and rating. It’s recommended that the Universities should avoid biasness in the recruitment process as this will negatively impact on employee performance