ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PRACTICES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

The Commission for University Education in Kenya recommended that Universities should be ranked so that their performances are open to public scrutiny. Sound recruitment and selection, induction and evaluation are some of the performance indicators that Universities must put in place in order to attract the required human capital that will achieve Universities individual performance, which are necessary for ranking the Universities in Kenya. University performance involves many variables some of which have been extensively researched on. Recruitment and selection is the research gap as far as the University ranking is concerned since this area has not been exhaustively studied. The purpose of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of recruitment and selection practices on performance in the Kenyan Public Universities. The study specific objectives were: to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment process on employees performance, to determine the effectiveness of short listing process on employees performance, to analyze the effectiveness of interview and selection processes on employees performance, to determine the effectiveness of the employees’ induction process on their performance and to determine the effectiveness of employees evaluation on performance of Kenyan public Universities. The relevant literature was reviewed. The relevant literature was reviewed. The study used a descriptive survey design. The study used a descriptive survey design. The target population for this study comprised 1,620 Heads of departments and 23 Heads of Human Resource Departments totaling to 1,643. The study used simple random sampling technique to pick heads of department and purposive samplings to pick Human Resource Officers in-charge owing to their ability in understanding recruitment and selection practices in public Universities in Kenya. The sample size was calculated using Cochran’s correction formula and confirmed using sample Kathuri and Pals 1993 sample determination table. A sample size of 334 consisting of heads of department and Human Resource Officers in-charge was arrived at. The data was collected using questionnaires. Using SPSS program, Pearson Correlation and regression were run alongside the descriptive statistics such as the mean, standard deviation and frequencies. The study concludes that there is significant relationship between recruitment and selection practices and the University performance in Kenya.