The Contribution of Training on Employee Performance: A Case Study of Mbale District Local Government.

Abstract

MAWULULU JAMES PATRICKSON (2011-M104-40023) The Contribution of Training on Employee Performance: A Case Study of Mbale District Local Government This research focused on the contribution of training to employee performance in Mbale district local government. The topic was chosen due to the existing poor service delivery by employees despite their high qualifications and some of them benefiting from the district training programmes which are supposed to empower them with skills for improved performance. The findings show that majority of the respondents agreed that the district has effective training programmes which is reflected in: carrying out of training needs assessments, drawing work plans, and therefore, enabling them to meet the employee needs by way of imparting necessary skills to employees which enables them to perform their duties efficiently leading to improved service delivery. The findings on the relationship between training and employee performance was found to be positive because employees who have benefited from the training programmes in the district were reported to have improved their performance by being able to meet deadlines, acquired new relevant skills that have enabled them to adjust to new trends of technological demands and hence they provide quality and timely reports. Although the above view was held by many respondents, those who differed with it argued that there is a limited relationship between training and employee performance considering other factors like political influence, poor attitude towards work, failure to involve workers in determining training needs; relating it with examples of employees who are trained outside their areas of occupation. It was found out that there were several challenges that are encountered in carrying out training and the most dominant challenge was underfunding the training programme and late release of funds for the same. In addition, political influence and poor attitude towards work were found to be cause of poor performance of employees. It is against the above challenges that the respondents suggested the strategies to address these short falls to include: conducting proper needs assessments prior to the training, need to scale the role of political leadership in determining the beneficiaries of the training programmes, raising funds locally to step up the Conditional Grants for capacity building and improving working conditions through promotions, salary increments in order to motivate beneficiaries to work better--this was found out to be one of the ways of increasing a number of beneficiaries besides being able to retain highly trained staff after the training. Key words: Government, Local, Training, Performance, Employee