Perceived Influence of Employee Compensation Practices on Employee Commitment at Kenya Forest Service Headquarters, Kiambu County.

Abstract

The study sought to establish the perceived influence of employee compensation practices on employee commitment in Kenya Forest Service. Employee compensation practices were measured by basic pay, bonus schemes and merit payment. The study’s objective was to establish the perceived influence of employee compensation practices on employee commitment in Kenya Forest Service.The descriptive research design was employed in the study. A semi-structured was used to collect data from the lower management, middle management and the top level management. The study utilized stratified sampling technique to obtain a sample size of 62 staffs. Data obtained was well coded and analyse. The study concluded that Kenya Forest Service used various compensation practices in order to motivate its employees. Compensation practices such as basic pay was largely being practice in the organization as the compensation policy recognizes employees’ skills, effort, responsibility, competency and commitment since all this encourage employees to work hard. In addition organizations do not provide hourly payment since employees prefer monthly payment. The study findings were that compensation was based on the knowledge and skills of an individual; that is; employees should receive payment for their talents (that can be used successfully under different situations and tasks .The recommended that Kenya Forest Service should focus on sustained improvement in employee compensation practices as a mechanism of enhancing employee commitment and retention for competent staff.The study was limited to time since at the time the research was being conducted when employees were undergoing workshop training. The study recommended that similar studies be done on the other firms in the public sector to confirm or contradict the findings of the study.