INFLUENCE OF EMPLOYEES’ MOTIVATION ON STAFF TURNOVER IN TECHNICAL, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING INSTITUTIONS,

The effectiveness or decline of any organization in providing its quality services or products is highly dependent on the human resource to achieve their mission, vision and the organization’s goals since high performance is obtained by well-motivated employees who are ready to exercise discretionary effort. However, the more the employees lose the level of motivation, performance decreases and there is high rate of absenteeism, physical problems and turnover. Motivation has been cited by various researchers as a major tool to eliminate the negative impacts of employees’ turnover for any organization for it is usually the backbone of human resource management.

It is upon this background that the researcher wished to study on the influence of employees’ motivation on staff turnover in Technical, Vocational Education and Training Institutions in Nyeri County. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the role of remuneration, career development opportunities, internal promotions and workplace environment on staff turnover in TVET institutions. The study was built upon Maslows theory, Herzberg’s motivation theory, Equity theory and Expectance – value theory. The study adopted descriptive research design methodology. 

The researcher targeted Board of Management employees as the target population of the study from the three institutions. The target population of this study was one hundred and thirty two (132) employees from TVET institutions. Census design was used whereby it included all the population from the institutions. Both open and closed ended questionnaires were used for collection of data. A pilot test was done to pretest the questionnaires to ensure internal consistency of the instruments by computing Cronbach’s alpha to determine reliability of the instrument. Acceptable reliability of Cronbach’s alpha 0.8 and above was taken. Out of the probable 132 respondents, 128 respondent representing 97.0% of the target sample returned the questionnaires. Collected data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to generate descriptive and inferential statistics which was presented using frequency distribution tables, pie chart and bar charts. Influence of employees’ motivation on staff turnover was analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

 Remuneration had inverse and significance relationship on staff turnover in TVET institutions. In addition, career development opportunities and internal promotion had inverse but insignificance effect on staff turnover in TVET institutions. Workplace environment had direct and significance relationship on staff turnover in TVET institutions. The researcher recommended that TVET institutions should review both monetary and non-monetary motivational factors to reduce the rate of staff turnover. TVET institutions should also come up with internal promotion policy or a criterion that has to be communicated to all employees as it significantly influences their decision to stay or leave the institution. In addition, this study suggest that TVET institutions should evaluate the possibilities of supporting employees to advance by giving them equal opportunities when opportunities arises and develop a policy that should focus on establishing the reward systems for employees who may have acquired additional skills and qualification over the years. The study suggests that future research could focus on the challenges TVET institutions face when addressing employees’ motivation factors with a view of reducing turnover rate