Effects of Incentives in Retention of Employees in Public Working Stations: A Case of Ushetu District Council, Shinyanga Region, Tanzania.

This study investigated the effects of incentives in retention of employees in public working stations at Ushetu District Council. The study was guided by three specific objectives, namely; to identify the incentives which were most effective in retaining employees in their working stations, to assess the institutional conditions that indicated the need for incentives systems and to assess the challenges that hindered the management to provide incentives to their employees. Data were collected from 104 respondents using questionnaires and interview schedules. The findings indicated that the employees at Ushetu Council were retained by several incentives included provision of health insurance, salaried loan services, the annual leave,participation in decision making and effective communication between employer,supervisors and employees. Findings showed further that Ushetu Council management had a problem of offering incentives to employees, no planning to give incentives to employees, absence of recognition culture to employees, disbursement of annual leave payments to employees were delayed, delayed promotions, and nonpayment of extra hours to employees that worked extra time. The study recommends the management should promote incentives systems at work to retain employees; the community, heads of working stations and the employer should understand that working environments of the whole council is not attractive and conducive to public employees due to poor social services and human needs, lastly, the Government should take measures to pay the employees’ debts which include transfer allowances, leave payments, salary arrears and referral medicals. Keywords: Incentives, retention, employees, Ushetu District Counci