Abstract:
Employees in various local authorities across the globe play a significant role in
provision of essential services to people within their areas of jurisdiction. In many
developing countries such as Tanzania, local governments are however, faced with
challenges in service delivery due to external and internal forces such as inadequacy of
finance, centralized decision making by the central government, emergence of private
organizations providing similar services and the changing technology. This study
assessed the factors affecting training of employees on performance in Eldoret Municipal
Council in Kenya. The research was guided by the following objectives: to find out the
factors that necessitate the need for employees’ training, to assess the various modes of
employees’ training and to examine the challenges facing employees training in Eldoret
Municipal Council. The study adopted open systems theory propounded by Von
Bertanlaffy (1962), and a survey research design. A total study sample of 261
respondents was considered for this study of which 254 were field officers from the seven
departments and all the seven heads of departments. Stratified sampling was used to
group employees based on departments. A study sample of 30 percent of field officers
from each department was drawn through simple random sampling technique but all the
seven heads of departments were purposively sampled. Data for this study were collected
through the use of questionnaires containing both open and closed ended items and
document analysis. Analysis of data involved the use of Statistical Package for Social
Sciences as well as qualitative analysis. Descriptive techniques such as the use of
percentages and frequencies were then used in the presentation of the findings. The
findings revealed that among the needs for training included the need by employees to
acquire more skills and knowledge, personal initiative for promotion and salary
increment, changing technology at work place, and competition from private entities
offering similar services for a fee. It was also established that there were both on the job
and off the job training in EMC but not all employees benefit from the trainings. The
challenges facing employees training included insufficient funds allocation for training,
lack of formalized criteria for selecting trainees, corruption and bribery, and tribalism. A
training gap which had manifested itself in poor service delivery had been experienced
resulting in emergence of private organization that provided similar services. Frequent
systematic training blended with an all-inclusive departmental needs assessment for
employees should be established to bridge this gap. With the change of the Kenyan
constitution, a similar research should be done in the county government to evaluate
training and employees’ performance in service delivery. In addition, further research
should also be conducted on other monetary and non monetary incentives to establish
their impact on employees’ performance in the current county governments