Abstract:
This study focused on the implication of Human Resources reward system on Research Scientists workers at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Most govemment organizations such as KARI place a lot of emphasize on other elements of human resources such as recruitment and selection of staff while making little effort to improve the reward system that will attract its core workforce and make them feel happy to work with the organization. The implication of this has been reduced motivation amongst the scientist workers that has led to high staff turnover. The study established the current reward schemes put in place and as applied by KARI, how effective these rewards are in motivating and retaining the Research Personnel in the institute, the Researchers opinions on the rewarding system in KARI and the relationship between the rewarding system and the staff tumover at KARI in the last five years. The study adopted a case study of research with a Likert 5-point and 3-point scale based questionnaire. It obtained information from a sample size of 68 research scientists from the five KARI centers in Nakuru District. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze and present data that was presented in form of tables, frequencies averages and mean using computer- based Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results indicate that most rewards schemes and especially the non-financial ones, in the human resource department at KARI are only theoretical. The researcher found out that the Research Scientists generally have a negative attitude towards the rewarding system applied by KARI. The study also established that the Research Personnel in KARI are not motivated by the reward schemes in place. The conclusion from the results of the study carried out is that there is a strong relationship between the KARI rewarding system and Research Personnel Staff turnover as most scientists have left the institute due to its poor rewarding system.
