Influence of Occupational Health and Safety Practices on Employee Performance at Kenya Power and Lighting Company

Abstract

Health and safety at work is amongst some of the most valuable assets of companies, individuals, communities, and countries. Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) programs are therefore, key strategies within organizations in ensuring that the health and the safety of employees are observed, thus contributing positively to the productivity of an organization (WHO, 2013). The study’s objective was to establish the influence of occupational health and safety practices on employee performance at Kenya Power and Lighting Company. This study was anchored on two theories namely goal-freedom alertness theory and the distractions theory. The study employed a research design that is descriptive. The target respondents were 210 respondents from of KPLC head office, Stima Plaza. Collection of primary data from the respondents was by use of structured questionnaires through drop and pick method. The questionnaires had three sections. Section A addressed general issues on the respondents’ background information. Section B addressed questions on occupational health and safety practices while section C addressed questions on employee performance. The data obtained underwent analysis using descriptive statistics such as standard deviations and means through the Statistical Tool for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The inferential statistics was undertaken by performing a regression analysis to establish the influence of OHS on employee performance. The study found that Occupational Health and Safety Practices (OHSP) have a significant effect on performance of employees at Kenya Power and Lighting Company. This was evidenced by a p value of 0.000 at 95 percent level of confidence. This shows that the model adopted for this study was significant. The study thus recommends that the Kenya Power and Lighting Company should invest and enhance OHSP within all the dimensions of the organization so as to realize improved employee performance.