Employee Perception of Incentive Schemes: The Case of Staff at Co-Operative Bank of Kenya

To survive in todays highly competitive environment, banks have to maintain a competent and motivated workforce. Employee motivation is the foundation that enables the organization to achieve improved productivity and hence become competitive and successful in the market. Therefore, many organizations have incentive schemes in place to motivate their employees. However, incentives offered by the company need to be positively perceived and valued by employees in order to be effective. It is against this background this study sought to find out the employee perception and awareness of these incentive schemes. The population for this study was the Co-operative Bank of Kenya staff in selected branches in Kenya. The study was based on descriptive survey method. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews schedule. It was analyzed using descriptive statistics to enable deriving some conclusions. The findings show that there is high awareness of staff on the incentive schemes in place, that indeed incentive schemes motivate employees to work harder and improve productivity. Moreover, it was revealed that some incentives are more powerful in motivating workers. Employees prefer cash more than non-cash incentives. It also emerged that although employees believe that performance evaluations are fairly done, incentives are not given according to individual performance.