Perceptions of Health Workers and Managers on the Use of Non-Monetary Human Resource Motivation Tools in General Hospitals of Central Uganda

Abstract

World over, there is a driving force to create a health care workplace that motivates, maintains and obtains the best out of health workers. In order to achieve this, non-monetary tools can be employed by health managers in hospital settings. Therefore, a study was carried out in six Ugandan general hospitals to establish the perceptions of health workers on the use of non-monetary human resource motivation tools and to examine the contribution of these tools to employees’ motivation. A cross-sectional qualitative study was employed. Key informant interviews with three District Health Officers and 15 top hospital managers were conducted. Six focus group discussions, one in each hospital where also conducted with participating health workers derived from professional groups such as medical officers, enrolled/registered midwives and nurses and allied health professionals. Health workers were interviewed on prevailing practice, adequacy, experience, functioning and views on core non-monetary human resource motivation tools such as training, supervision, performance assessments, and management. Critical incidents were nonmonetary human resource motivation tools had influenced the motivation of some health workers were identified. The use of core non-monetary human resource tools such as continuous medical education, communication between health workers, taking part in decisions of the hospital and organizing social functions were well perceived by the respondents. Promotion of health workers, recognizing best performers, supervision, training and workshops were not well perceived. Health workers were mainly: motivated by the good work relationships and they were mainly demotivated by the poor working conditions. There is a need to have urgent attention on factors which seem to affect the effective use of the non-monetary human resource tools. The factors include; improving working conditions and staffing to reduce workload and avail enough resources to the workers to be motivated carry out their work.