Abstract:
The study sought to establish effect of strategic human resource management on teacher turnover in private secondary schools in Nyeri County. The objectives of the study were to; investigate the extent to which career development opportunities affect teachers' turnover in private schools; assess the extent to which work environment in the private secondary schools influence teachers' turnover in private schools; evaluate the extent to which reward system affects teachers' turnover in private schools and examine the extent to which work life balance policies affect teachers' turnover in private schools in Nyeri County. The study was guided by social exchange theory and 5 P model. The study adopted a survey design. The population of the study was the school managers of the 21 private schools in Nyeri County and teachers who have previously transferred from private secondary schools in Nyeri County. The study used stratified random sampling and snowballing to pick respondents to participate in the study. Snowball sampling method was used to reach out to teachers who had previously transferred from private schools. To collect data a close ended questionnaire was used. The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The data was analyzed to generate frequencies, mean and percentages. Regression model was also generated to establish the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable. The findings were as follows: On reward system teachers in private secondary schools felt they were lowly paid and the appointments were unfair. Reward had the highest effect on the teacher's turnover. On career development, teachers in private schools are rarely trained. Career development was the second in terms of the effect on turnover. The findings on working environment revealed that teachers had good working relationship with colleagues and they got advice on how to improve their performance. However, the supervisors were unresponsive to the individual complains. On work-life balance policies, teachers in private secondary school were provided with adequate leave duration but the working hours were not fixed. Work-life balance policies had the least effect on teachers' turnover.
