EMPLOYEE SKILLS MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

Tuaweri, W. P.

Department of Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University,

Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Oparanma, A. O.

Department of Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University,

Port Harcourt, Nigeria

and

Mark, J.

 Department of Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University,

Port Harcourt, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between Employee Skills Management and Performance of Public Hospitals in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The study adopts a cross-sectional study research design. The study population consist of three thousand four hundred and eighty-eight (3488) employees, obtained from the human resource departments of five (5) public hospitals in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State; with a sample size of three hundred and forty-six (346) which was determined from the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table. After data cleaning, three hundred and twenty-seven (327) respondents were finally used for data analysis. The analysis was carried out in primary, secondary and tertiary stages respectively. The primary stage of the analysis had to do with demographic analysis. At the secondary stage, the univariate analytical tool employed was used to describe the individual variables using mean scores and standard deviation, at the tertiary stage, the bivariate analysis was carried out to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between the dimensions of the employee skills management and the measures of organizational performance with the use of Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient in other to test the stated hypotheses formulated for the study with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 26. The empirical findings revealed that there is a strong and positive relationship between employee skills management and the measures of performance of public hospitals in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State that were studied. Thus, the study concludes that, investments in employee skills management is positively related to organizational performance. The study recommends that public hospitals employ various skill identification methods, such as job analysis, competency mapping, self-assessment, and performance appraisal, as it helps organizations make informed decisions about improving their performance.

Keywords: Employee Skills Management, Skill Identification, Skill Assessment, Skill Development, Labour Productivity, Employee Retention.