Developing and improving human capital and productivity in public companies

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of the Assisted Education Programmed (AEP) in developing and improving human capital and productivity specifically for eThekwini Municipality employee human resource. This program offers funding to employees to further their studies in higher learning institutions, which are in partnership with and recognized by eThekwini Municipality. The core function of this program is to improve and develop employee capabilities in order to enhance municipal productivity. However, different factors have prohibited the program from reaching required funding polity objectives. Participants filled in questionnaires and from them data were collected. The study used quantitative research as a method of research. The target population for this study consisted of 100 participants. The study sample size were 64 participants which were randomly selected out of the Durban and Solid Waste Unit, specifically general assistants. The study analyzed data using SPSS (version 23.0). A significant percentage of respondents indicated to a lack of transparency and poor consistency in the process of awarding the funding and to insufficient information, which detailed the criteria for eligibility of applicants. Henceforth, the study concluded that municipal employee underutilized the AEP because of being ill informed about it. This resulted in the employee perception that the program had little or no benefit to them and that it had no value in improving their human capital development. This finding is shown by a Chi-square goodness of fit test to be statistically significant (std=1.49150; mean=2.7500; p=.000).