The extent to which work life balance practices are adopted in horticultural farms in Naivasha - Kenya

Abstract

Organisations in modern day competitive world can only perform at optimal levels if each employee is committed to the organisation's objectives and works as an effective team member. An inability to create a balance between work and personal life could affect employees’ effectiveness and productivity in the workplace. As the nature of the workforce continues to diversify, it will become increasingly important for organizations to consider all the factors influencing their employees’ ability to balance work and non-work commitments, and to find a way of incorporating them into their operating policies. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which work life balance practices are adopted by horticultural farms in Naivasha. The study adopted a census research design. Data was collected from the human resources managers from 20 horticultural farms in Naivasha using a self administered structured questionnaire. The data was presented in form of tables and bar charts. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study indicate that horticultural farms in Naivasha have adopted practices relating to time and to the job to a great extent while practices relating to the place and to the benefits have been adopted to a moderate extent only. The study recommends that greater attention should be paid to practices relating to the job as well as benefits as they are the ones with the lower ratings than practices relating to time and place. In particular, the farms should introduce employee assistance programs and study leave in order to empower the employees to make better use of the other practices they have been provided. Further, the farms should vi consider introducing flexible working hours and increased work autonomy so that the employee can schedule their work in a manner that allows them to attend to non work matters during off peak working hours/seasons. The study also revealed areas on which further research could be conducted. For instance, it would be beneficial if further research could be conducted across horticultural farms in the entire country since the study focused on Naivasha constituency only. Further, this study was conducted on horticultural farms only. A similar study can be conducted on other sub sectors in the agricultural industry to enable a comparison between the sub sectors. A survey should also be conducted on the employees to corroborate the findings of this study.