SOCIALPROTECTION STRATEGIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE INTEA SECTOR IN NANDI COUNTY, KENYA

Social welfare is an essential element to any employee in organization. Employee welfare has raised unprecedented challenges between the employer and the employees leading to industrial unrest activities which are directed towards providing the employees with certain facilities and comfort geared towards improvement of employee’s wellbeing. The study sought to; establish the relationship between employee welfare strategies and performance; to determine the labour market strategies and their influence on organizational performance of tea firms in Nandi County, it also to examine the effect of micro – area based schemes on organizational performance of tea firms in Nandi County Kenya, to assess the moderating effect of the government policy on social protection strategies and its effect on performance of tea firms in Nandi County. The study was grounded by Functional Theory of labour welfare and Social capital Theory. The study adopted a correlational research design to answer research problem. The target population was 475 employees in Nandi County. Stratified random sampling was used to get a sample size of 214 employees from tea firms in Nandi County. Data was collected using structured questionnaires. Validity and reliability of instruments results was established before the actual study. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics encompassed determination of frequency, means and standard deviations while for inferential statistics the study used Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Regression analysis included simple, multiple and hierarchical linear regression to examine moderating effects of government policies. The SPSS Version 24 was used to aid in the data analysis. The findings revealed that Labour market strategies have significant positive influence on organizational performance. Similar results were obtained for Micro finance services while Social assistance and welfare programs has positive but insignificant influence on performance of employees in tea firms in Nandi County. Therefore, employee welfare strategies affected their performance at tea firms in Nandi County. Study findings indicated that government Policy has a significant effect on social protection strategies and performance of tea firms in Nandi County. The study concluded social protection strategies have significant influence on organizational performance in the Tea Sector in Nandi County.