Assessing the effectiveness of incentives towards employees' performance in Abaqulusi Local Municipality

Abstract

The research study focused on assessing the effectiveness of incentives towards employees’ performance in Abaqulusi Local Municipality, KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa. This aim was fulfilled and supported with the research objectives, to determine the relationship between biographical factors of education qualifications, to ascertain relationship between non-financial incentives and performance level and to ascertain the relationship between financial incentives and performance level. The purpose of incentive schemes is to influence employees to achieve higher performance in the workplace. To confirm this purpose in ALM, this study assess the extent to which incentive encourage employees to higher performance. The incentive factor and the quality of working life needs to get the attention of the management to be able for improve the employees performance. It is essential that employees in municipalities enjoy some kind of incentive system to motivate and raise their level of performance, like other public sector employees, municipal workers in South Africa have different needs to satisfy; these needs include the need for recognition, respect and superior approval, flexible working hours, work autonomy, as well as the ability to self-development. Considering these needs, it is important to state that non-financial incentives are likely to motivate employees in public organisations, including ALM employees. The research design used in this study was the quantitative approach, a high response rate of 100% was obtained using the personal method of data collection, and questionnaire was structured in a seven point Likert scale format. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24.0 for Windows was used for statistical analysis of the main responses. A stratified random sampling technique was applied in selecting the 150 permanent employees from the various departments into several and mutual strata in ALM.