Effects of occupational health and safety practices on employees’ productivity in Mumias Sugar Company, Kenya

Abstract

A healthy and safe workforce is an essential component for any business to run successfully. This is evident in the enormous interest by organizations in the activities related to Occupational Health and Safety practices and organizations have used this as part of enhancing employee productivity. Organizations tend to concentrate on factors or variables which enhance productivity and sometimes ignore Occupational Health and Safety practices and take it as a side issue. As much as other variables contribute substantially to employee productivity there is need to integrate Occupational Health and Safety practices as one of the parameters that contribute to employee productivity. The objectives of this study were to: identify Occupational Health Safety activities in the organization, determine effects of Occupational Health and Safety on employee productivity, ascertain challenges faced in implementing occupational health and safety practices and explore appropriate techniques of implementing Occupational Health and Safety practices. This study was based on Maslows hierarchy of needs theory. The researcher sought to examine one organization in the sugar industry in detail and therefore adopted a case study design. The target population of the study was 1603 employees in Mumias Sugar Company Limited. Stratified and purposive sampling technique were used to sample 185 respondents, which include; top management, middle level management, supervisors and sub-ordinate. In addition simple random sampling was applied in selecting representative sample of the middle level management, supervisors and subordinates. Observation, Questionnaires and interviews were the instruments used to collect data. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the results presented using tables, charts and graphs. The Multiple Regression showed that the R 2 = .812 indicated that all the occupational health and safety practices in the model account for 81.2% variation in the employee productivity in Mumias Sugar Company. The Occupational Health and Safety practices which had positive relationship with productivity of employees include; fire prevention and protection, lighting and ventilation, personal protective equipments and good house keeping, while chairs/tables and facilities for sitting, first aid kit and medical facility and drinking water and sanitary facilities had negative relationship. The study concludes that when an organization fully implements occupational health and safety practices employees’ productivity improves. It was also realized that absence of Occupational Health and Safety practices could easily result in absenteeism, high employee turnover, increased medical bill and insurance claim, injuries and frequent accidents. The study recommends continuous improvements of occupational health and safety practices as it greatly influences employee satisfaction, commitment, performance and productivity.