Employee Incentive Practices Among Dairy Firms in Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya dairy board was established to ensure the orderly and smooth development of the dairy sector in Kenya and to facilitate stakeholder activities towards a sustainable dairy industry that provides quality and competitive milk and milk products. The purpose of this study was to evaluate incentives practices of dairy firms in Kenya. The study employed descriptive research design for it portrays an accurate profile of situations. This was designed to describe the characteristics of a particular phenomenon in a situation. The study focused on 34 dairy firms in Kenya. The respondents were heads of the human resources function in the dairy firms. A purposive or judgmental sampling was used for the study. The study used a semi-structured questionnaire to collect primary data. A questionnaire was preferred because it was simple to administer and convenient for collecting data within a short time. The questionnaire was administered through email, drop and pick, courier or by personal administration depending on the convenient method to the specific respondents. The researcher used quantitative method of data analysis. Data collection from secondary sources was analyzed manually by first editing the information for accuracy, consistency and completeness and then categorizing it systematically. The results indicated that most dairy firms provide bonus incentives to a great extent (40%), moderate (36%), large extent (12%), less extent (8%) and not at all (4%). The researcher established that most dairy firms provide protective clothing incentives to a great extent (68%) especially to staff in production department. The study also established that most (48%) dairy firm provides telephone allowance to sales staff and senior management purposely for sales leads. It was also revealed that most (72%) of the industry players provide education support to less extent hence there is need for dairy firms to continue providing education support its staff. The finding shows that most (60%) of dairy firms provide end year party incentives to staff in appreciation for their efforts in generating revenue for the company. The study also revealed that most (60%) of dairy firms provide accommodation incentives to less extent. It was concluded that most dairy firms provide bonus, medical care, insurance cover, telephone allowance, off time annual leave, sick leave and commission incentives to their staff and dairy firms should incorporate fully bonuses as an incentive practice to all departments because they work towards achieving the overall objective of the firm and not sales department alone.