| dc.description.abstract | Emp oyee turnover remams.
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competitive advantage. For instance, the U.S. experiences an average of 197% turnover each
year; Australia faces 9% employee turnover each year; Nigeria has an average of 88% female
employee turnover of civil servants each year, while in Kenya, an average turnover of 113%
was experienced among private security guards between 2010 and 2014 in Kisumu County
alone. Although motivation theorists attribute high employee turnover to working conditions,
it has not been established whether or not private security firms have failed to provide
conducive working conditions for its employees, neither has employee turnover been
determined, nor the relationship between working conditions and employee turnover. The
purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between working conditions and
employee turnover in private security firms in Kisumu County. Specific objectives were to
establish the working conditions; establish the employee turnover and investigate the
relationship between working conditions and employee turnover. The conceptual framework
is based on Hertzberg's two factor theory of motivation. The study adopted correlational
research design. Target population was 12,079 security guards, and a sample size of 387
respondents was obtained through proportional stratified sampling. Questionnaires and
interview schedules were used to collect data. Reliability was ensured through split half on
randomly selected 20 guards, one from each security company, where coefficients of a= 0.82,
and a=0.84 were obtained for working conditions and employee turnover respectively.
Instrument validity was ensured through the appraisal of six experts from the fields of social
research, human resource management, and the private security industry. It was found that
working conditions in private security firms are generally poor (M=4.1l; SD= 0.679), and
employee turnover rate is very high (M=2.66; SD=O.934). Further, salaries and
remunerations was found to correlate highly (r =.689, p<.Ol) with employee turnover, and the
stated aspects of working conditions together explain 63% of the observed variance in
employee turnover, with a significant model fitting (F=80.462; P<O.Ol). Regression analysis
revealed that salary and remuneration contributes to 0.516 of employee turnover; work life
balance contributes to 0.321 of employee turnover; leadership style contributes to 0.249 of
employee turnover, and employee relations contribute to 0.173 of employee turnover in
private security firms. This infers that salary and remunerations contribute most to employee
turnover. The researcher concluded that high rates of employee turnover in private security
firms are caused by dissatisfaction with the prevailing working conditions. It is recommended
that private security firms should improve on their working conditions which include paying
guards as per the stipulated minimum wage requirements, including overtime, and in good
time. Equally, the guards should be granted off days and annual leaves to reduce fatigue and
promote a conducive ~=Drk-life balance, while the management in security firms should put
in place proper grievance handling procedures to enable the guards concerns at work to be
channelled and addressed appropriately. This study is significant in highlighting the
relationship between working conditions and employee turnover in private security firms,
contributes to the existing literature in the field of Human Resource Management and it opens
up new opportunities for further research on working conditions in this sector. | en_US |
