Effects of Rewards Systems on Employee Performance. A Case Study of The Nairobi County Government

Abstract

The success of any organization depends on the ability of the managers to provide a motivating work environment for its employees. This helps the organization in not only having more productive employees but also in employee retention. By understanding the needs of the employees, managers can understand what rewards to use to motivate them to improve their performance. According to Armstrong and Murlis (2007), reward systems and recognition are consistently acknowledged by organizations and managers as an important tool in motivating individual employees. Rewards are used by organizations as a bait to attract and retain highly qualified employees thereby minimizing organization expenditure in terms of cost and time that would have been incurred in recruitment processes. Reward systems are the clearest ways managers and leaders of an organization can send a message to employees about what they consider important. A great deal of the way people behave in an organization is influenced by the way they are measured and rewarded (Kasser, 2002).According to Attwood (2006), traditionally most reward and recognition programs were vague and often given in response to managers’ perception of when an employee performed exceptionally well. There were no set standards by which exceptional performance could be measured, and it could have meant anything from consistent punctuality, assisting other departments or even having a good attitude. While according to Blyth (2008), things have changed in current organizations as organizations understand the great benefits achieved by incorporating rewards, job satisfaction, motivation and performance with their business strategies. To achieve desired organizational goals, reward systems should be perfectly aligned to organizational strategies (Allen and Helms, 2002)