Factors influencing staff turnover in public sector in Kenya: a case study of office of the director of public prosecution, Nairobi, region

Abstract

Presently, employee retaining in the office of the director in public prosecution is a recurring problem for the government. Despite measures having been put in place to monitor and control employee turnover, there are still cases of higher and lower turnover reported from human resource management. However, this study's primary purpose was to establish elements that influence personnel turnover in government agencies in Kenya, with a focus on the ODPP Nairobi Region. This study’s objectives were: to ascertain the nature and magnitude of staff turnover; to ascertain work environment factors influencing turnover of personnel; to investigate remuneration factors influencing staff turnover and to ascertain career-development factors influencing staff turnover by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The study was founded on Herzberg's two-factor hypothesis. This research utilized a descriptive design to analyze the characteristics of the numerous analyzed parameters. The target population of the study was 236 legal and non- legal staffs. Structured questionnaires were used in data collection. Systematic random sampling was used to yield a sample of 147 respondents from the target population of workers at the Main Office (ODPP House), the PTI, the NSSF, Milimani, Kibera, Mavoko, and Makadara Prosecution offices, as well as the Kiambu, Machakos, and Makueni County offices. Additionally, 25 key informants were purposively sampled among high officials. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 24) was employed to derive both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that there are high cases of staff turnover with the respondents confirming having experienced the same with those having experienced it often and very often being at 59.2%. More respondents (61.7%) stated that females experienced turnover as compared to their male counterparts at 38.3%. Marital status as a variable also influenced the turnover with 79.2%of the respondents indicating that more married staff were leaving and in terms of age, 76.7% of the staff indicated that the middle aged were exiting more than the rest. Lack of work life balance, poor job satisfaction, less allowances, low levels of salary, lack of recognition and lack of promotion and mentoring opportunities were the major causes of high staff turnover. The study concluded that the working conditions should be improved with better salaries and chances at mentorship and promotion to ensure the staffs grow their career and are satisfied with their jobs.