Human Resources Management Practices and Job Performance

ABSTRACT

There has been a recurring problem in the way in which the employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State are managed. The employees (as human resources) who are expected to carry out their given tasks have been perceived to be under-performing. The main objective of the study was to examine the influence of human resource management practices on the job performance of local government council employees in Bayelsa State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was made up of employees in of the Local government councils in Bayelsa State. Taro Yamane was used to determine the sample size to be 351. Questionnaire was the main research instrument and it was administered to the 8 local government councils in Bayelsa State based on their proportion. The data collected were analysed using description and inferential statistics through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). It was revealed that staffing, training and development, financial reward and performance appraisal had significant relationship with the job performance of employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State. Career development had a non-significant relationship with the job performance of employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State. Staffing had negative relationship with the job performance of the employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State. Training and development, financial reward, career development and performance appraisal had positive relationship with the job performance of the employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State. Financial reward had the highest positive coefficient. This was followed by career development. Staffing had the least coefficient. There was a moderate correlation between each of the human resource management variables and the job performance of the employees in the local government councils in Bayelsa State. It was concluded that staffing, training and development financial reward, career development, and performance appraisal are key human resource management practices in the local government councils in Bayelsa. On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that the management of the local government councils consider staffing as a critical success factor. They need to recruit employees on the basis of merit and equal opportunity. Furthermore, training and development, financial reward, career development and performance appraisal should be appropriately adopted in the local government councils.