Influence of quality of academic talent attracted and employed on academic performance of lecturers at Rongo university, Kenya

Abstract

There has been an increase in competition among private and public universities in Kenya as well as shortage for competent teaching staff, which makes it pertinent for universities to attract, retain and motivate highly talented employees. Academic staff in the universities with desired talents continue to move from the universities to other sectors of the economy or even relocating abroad. Managing talent is a challenge in public universities in Kenya as they compete for the same pool of talents with other public universities and private universities. This study therefore sought to determine the quality of academic talent attracted and employed at Rongo University. The study used a descriptive research design. The target population of this study was 102 academic staff at Rongo University comprising. The sample size was 82 members of academic staff who will be selected by use of stratified random sampling. The research made use of primary data and secondary data. The secondary data source was the annual reports from Rongo University while primary data was gathered through use of semi-structured questionnaires. Thematic analysis was deployed in analyzing qualitative data then presentation of results was in a narrative form. With the help of SPSS (version 22) quantitative data was analyzed through use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The research results were presented in tables and figures. The study found that quality of academic talent attracted and employed has a significant effect on academic performance of lecturers at Rongo University (β1= 0.329, p-value=0.003). The study concludes that quality of academic talent attracted and employed has a statistically significant effect on academic performance of lecturers at Rongo University. The study recommends that the Human Resource Department in Rongo University should develop job requirements highlighting the key competencies required in the job. The university should also conduct a job analysis to identify talent gaps that need to be filled during recruitment of new staff.