Strategic Factors Affecting Recruitment of Academic Staff in Public Universities: A Case of Egerton University, Njoro Kenya

Abstract

The recruitment of employees with the right skills and abilities helps an organization achieve its strategic goals efficiently. For this reason, organizations should consider strategic factors that are likely to affect their recruitment process. Egerton University has had difficulty in attracting a pool of applicants in some fields such as Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Agricultural Economics and Commerce as highlighted in its strategic plan. This has contributed to shortage of staff in the academic categories within these disciplines. Past studies have not examined strategic factors influencing recruitment of academic staff in the said disciplines. The purpose of this study was to determine the strategic factors and how they affect recruitment of academic staff in public universities. The study was conducted in Egerton University. The sample size was 30 respondents comprising of 15 chairpersons of departments from the six areas of study and 15 members of the University Recruitment Committee. Primary data was collected using questionnaires and secondary data included internal documents such as Egerton University's 10-year Strategic Plan and Egerton University Scheme of Service. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for analysing data and results presented using table and graphs. Descriptive statistics and percentages were used to summarize the data. The results indicated that the strategic factors studied affect recruitment of academic staff at Egerton University, and the most important were salary, terms and conditions, presence of facilities, geographical area, and institutional reputation. The study makes recommendations to management practitioners and areas for further research.