Effect of Recruitment and Selection of Employees on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Kisumu Municipality, Kenya

The study investigated the effect recruitment and selection on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu Municipality, Kenya. Kenya has 1.6 million SMEs, constituting 96% of business enterprises, employing 75% of the labor force and contributing 20% to GDP. But their performance has been poor in the last decade. Hence the need to determine the suitable recruitment and selection strategies that could increase their performance. The study found that the overall average performance of SMEs in Kisumu Municipality was 60.71%. There was a significant positive correlation between recruitment and selection, and performance of SMEs at ? = .01. The average performance of SMEs with good recruitment and selection was 81.90%; with moderate was 67.94%, with poor was 53.90%. Recruitment and selection account for 40.8% of the total variance in performance of SMEs. The study concludes that recruitment and selection has a significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Kisumu Municipality. Key Words : Recruitment, selection, performance, SMEs, Kisumu, sourcing, attracting, screenin