ABSTRACT

Employee retention is vital in all the commercial banks in Kenya. This is because of the fact that worker turnover is high as employees search for jobs somewhere else which have better packages or personnel are head-hunted by rival companies which end up in making the company free professional personnel. Lack of gifted employees effects to a drop in performance therefore companies have to employ better employees retention strategies. The general objective of this study was to investigate the influence of employee retention strategies on the performance of selected commercial banks in Garissa County, Kenya. This study was guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the influence of work environment, reward, recruitment and selection and training on the performance commercial banks in Garissa County, Kenya. The study was anchored by two factor theory of motivation and the decision making theory. This study employed a descriptive design. The target population was 4 commercial banks in Kenya namely; Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity Bank, National Bank and Cooperative Bank. The targeted respondents were 149 respondents comprising of 4 branch managers and 145 employees from the four Banks in Garissa County, Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to identify the respondents from each bank and census of 49 respondents comprising of 4 managers and 45 employees was carried out. Questionnaires were administered to employees and interviews for the branch managers. Content analysis technique was used to analyze qualitative data collected using interview schedules and reported in narrative form. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and presented using charts, graphs and tables. The study concludes that work environment performs an essential role in motivating employees to carry out their assigned task and making a work environment wherein personnel are productive is essential to multiplied earnings for commercial banks. Reward systems carried out by commercial banks have an impact on personnel’ conduct and mindset towards their task and Implementation of extrinsic rewards is proved to have a favorable association with organizational performance. Training is very critical for commercial banks in Kenya to compete with this unpredictable and dynamic world. The focus of recruitment and selection in commercial banks in Kenya is to fit the competencies of prospective candidates against the demands and rewards inherent in a given job. For this reason, commercial banks in Kenya dedicate considerable sources and authority to creating high first-rate selection systems. The study recommends that management of commercial banks in Kenya ought to attempt as a great deal as possible to build a work environment that attracts, preserve and encourage its employees so that it will help them work in a conducive environment and growth enterprise performance. Commercial banks in Kenya ought to provide greater emphasis on intrinsic rewards so that it will encourage and improve personnel’s task performance. Commercial banks in Kenya should provide training to their personnel. This is because training and development have benefits not only for the employee however the last advantage is for the organization itself. The study also recommends that commercial banks in Kenya should deal with their candidates fairly, issues of favouritism have to be avoided when choosing candidates, jobs have to be properly described and analyzed to chose applicants to aid performance, the human resource department need to appraise employees to help them deliver off their high-quality and help improve overall performance of personnel.