Impact of Non-Financial Reward Strategies on Teachers’ Performance: A Study of Secondary Schools in Nyamira County, Kenya

Abstract

The teaching profession has in the recent past suffered from exodus of teachers moving from both public and private schools to other fields of employment. Mass exodus of trained teachers to other fields, lack of commitment to work itself as a teacher and decimal performance in national examinations and co-curricular activities, all indicate lack of satisfaction by teachers as employees. The study explored non-financial reward strategies employed to enhance higher levels of academic achievement, lower labour turnover and enhance teacher‘s commitment to their basic roles. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of non-financial reward strategies on teachers` performance at secondary schools. The objectives of the study were: to determine the effects of recognition on teachers’ performance; establish the effects of promotion on motivation of teachers’ performance; establish the effects of effective communication on teachers’ performance, and establish the effects of job enrichment on teachers’ performance. The study employed a descriptive survey research design with quantitative methods. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire. The targeted population comprised of 1600 teachers from 186 public secondary schools in Nyamira County. Simple random sampling technique was used where 94 respondents formed the sample size. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.  The study findings revealed that non-financial reward strategies for performance in secondary schools emanate from motivation acquired through recognition, job enrichment, communication and structured promotions adopted to achieve the set objectives. The study confirmed that recognition strategy was the most influential as it was ranked first with a strength of 4.44 on a 5-point Likert scale followed by communication strategy (with a strength of 4.25), then job enrichment strategy (with a strength of 3.88) and promotion strategy (2.93) was last. A coefficient of determination, r² = 0.5 indicated a positive relationship between non-financial reward strategies adopted in secondary schools in Nyamira County and performance in national examinations. The researcher recommended that schools should embrace the use of non-financial rewards to achieve a higher level of performance in national examinations since these strategies are less costly, affordable and at the disposure of all school-managers.

Keywords: Non-Reward strategies, Teachers Performance, Promotion, Communication