Effect Of Performance Contracting On Employee Performance. A Case Of Insurance Firms Nairobi County

ABSTRACT

Although the insurance firms in Kenya are vital for economic and the wealth creation, forming an integral part of the country ‘s financial sector, survival of this crucial industry is highly threatened as evidenced by collapse of numerous firms and many more being liquidated. The consequence of the industry’s collapse on the economy would be devastating. The challenges facing the insurance firms significant threatening its survival are associated with poor employee performance. As a remedy the industry has implemented initiatives which includes comprehensive performance evaluation system and performance incentive system staff training and career development to mitigate the effect of these challenges. However, these measures have yielded any better results in terms of the framework for guiding behavior towards attainment of results or ensured accountability in the use of resources and employee performance. further, empirical literature has not provided consistent findings on the effect of performance contracting on employee performance. It is on this presumption that this study established the effects of performance contracting on individual performance in insurance firms in Kenya. The objectives were to; establish the role of performance appraisal on employee performance in insurance firms in Nairobi County, investigated the consequence of personal reward on employee performance in insurance firms in Nairobi County, examine the influence of training on employee performance in insurance firms in Nairobi County, access the role of career development on employee performance in insurance firms in Nairobi County. The study was guided by employee performance motivation theories, informed the theoretical framework of the study. A major justification of the study was that employees from insurance firms are motivated by the performance contacting. The research design applied in this study was descriptive survey method. the target population consisted of 49 heads of performance contracting sections of 49 insurance firms in Kenya. Since the target population was readily accessible, the study used census, a non-probability method, in order to collect required data for the study, a standardized questionnaire was used as the main instrument. The obtained data was subjected to both quantitative and qualitative to produce descriptive statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 20). The results were presented using tables and figures. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to produced inferential statistics. It was found that; performance appraisal affects employee performance among insurance firms in Kenya, personal reward has an effect on employee performance among insurance firms in Kenya. It also found that employee training among insurance firms in Kenya and career development affect employee performance, of these institutions. The study recommends that; insurance firms in Kenya in collaboration with the IRA should structure and review their performance appraisal policy to include their support employee; insurance firms should include in their personal rewards an effective reward management, insurance firms in Kenya should improve their training include provision of academic (educational) training support, and the insurance firms in Kenya should design and develop a career development policy.