Article Published In Vol.6 (May-June-2018)

Talent Development Strategy and Employees’ Productivity in Private Sugar Companies in Kakamega County, Kenya

Author : Ooko George Oduor

Organizations that wish to be successful in this highly competitive world are those that systematically and proactively take necessary measures to ensure that they have the needed talented workforce to meet their current and future business requirements. There exists an acute shortage of talent, especially in top managerial positions in private sugar companies in Kakamega County in Kenya. This has resulted in employees’ low productivity leading to talent poaching and talent shift from private sugar companies to public sugar companies and other industrial sectors. Effective talent development strategies are therefore critical for the success of private sugar companies in Kakamega County. This study, therefore, examined the effect of talent development strategy on employees’ productivity in private sugar companies in Kakamega County, Kenya. The study used cross-sectional survey research design. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were employed to enable the researcher to select the respondents from the two private sugar companies in Kakamega County that is, West Kenya Sugar Company Limited and Butali Sugar Company Limited. The target population was made up of 320 respondents out of which 70 were managers and 250 were operative employees’. A sample size of 178 respondents was selected. Interview schedules and questionnaires were used as instruments for data collection. Validity and Reliability of research instruments were obtained by a test re-test method from the pilot study. The researcher undertaken the study in a period between June 2016 and September 2016. The computed Cronbach’s Alpha reliability of the research instrument was 0.834 which is above 0.7 Cronbach’s Alpha accepted in social research. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to test the relationship between the study variables and simple linear regression analysis was used in testing the study hypothesis. Data was presented in the form of frequency distribution tables, frequencies, and percentages. The study found out that private sugar companies have inadequate talent development strategies which are the main cause of employees’ low productivity. The study concluded that talent development strategy have a positive and significant relationship on employees’ productivity. The study recommends that private sugar companies in Kakamega County should put in place talent development strategies because the study found out that private sugar companies with talent development strategies have high employees’ productivity. Talent development strategy identified by the study entail: Promotion based on employees’ merit, provision of equal training opportunities and putting in place an elaborate succession planning.

Keywords: Talent development strategy, succession planning, employees’ productivity, primate sugar companies