Wellness Programs And Employee Performance In Commercial Banks, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study was to analyse the effect of wellness programs on the

performance of employees in commercial banks in Kenya. Specifically, the study

sought to determine the extent to which employee counselling programmes, drug and

substance abuse cessation programmes and provision of recreational facilities affected

employee performance within the commercial banks in Kenya. The study was guided

by 3 theories namely, social comparison, social exchange and hierarchy of needs

theories. The study was guided by a positivist philosophy and used descriptive research

deign targeting 30,903 employees of the 43 commercial banks in Kenya. Proportionate

stratified sampling combined with purposive sampling was used to identify 395

respondents for the study. Pilot study was done to check on the reliability and validity

of the instrument using Cronbach alpha (α) and expert opinion respectively. Structured

questionnaires was used to source for primary data while other studies, libraries,

worldwide web and organizational reports provided secondary data. Descriptive

statistics and regression model was used to analyse quantitative data while content

analysis was utilized to anlayse qualitative data. A response rate of 71% was achieved

and employee performance was found to be affected positively by the wellness

programs provided by the banks. Recreational facilities had the highest effect (76.9%),

employee counselling programmes (61.8%) while drug and substance abuse cessation

programs (46%). The findings also found that employee performance was mediated by

employee job satisfaction while employee characteristics also moderated the

relationship between employee performance and wellness programs. The employees

who would be satisfied with utilizing wellies programs would perform better evidenced

by the reduced absenteeism levels, enhanced punctuality, enhanced morale, and

reduced stress and anxiety among the employees. The moderating variable of employee

characteristics affected employee punctuality, influence the speed at which the

employees performed their assignments, helped in reducing employee stress, enhanced

teamwork and ultimately improved the productivity and output levels. The study

recommends that the employee counselling programmes should be enhanced,

recreational facilities play a critical role in enhancing performance among employees

and should be provided for the employees. The facilities should be accessible to most

of the employees and appropriately flexible. The study also recommends that the

commercial banks should endeavour to make employees be satisfied with their work so

that they can enhance output, which can be done through job enlargement, enrichment

and even rotation which ultimately enhances employee engagement. There is also need

for commercial banks to consider the characteristics of the individual employees in its

human resource practice. On policy level, commercial banks should consider policy

changes on how wellness programs are considered in workplaces, either public or

private and that there would be need to incorporate wellness programs and utilization

as a measure to manage medical costs through the incorporation of the same in the

Employment Law of Kenya. The study suggest that further studies be conducted on the

cost benefit analysis of the wellness programs so as to demystify the “high” costs

implication of the wellness programs regardless of the benefits out of it; on the impact

of employee attitude on successful implementation of the wellness programs with the

organizations and on the impact of employee counselling on employee performance.