Advisory services facilitate sustainable growth and profitability of small and medium enterprises. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of employees competence on the use of business advisory services in micro and small enterprises in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and the target population was 58 registered small and medium manufacturing enterprises in Kenya, industrial area of Nairobi County. A census approach was used as a sample size of the population target as a census. Purposive sampling method was used by the researcher to purposely reach the target group of small and medium enterprises owners. The respondents were the chief executive officers of the small and medium enterprises within the sample frame. Questionnaires were used as the main data collection instruments and the data collected was analyzed using measures of central tendency, dispersion and inferential statistics. Statistical software for social sciences (SPSS) was used as statistical tool for data analysis. Multiple regression models were used to establish the influence that the independent variables under study had on the dependent variable. Data was presented by frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The study findings showed that many microenterprises were not using business advisory services as result of low level of employees competency. The study thus concluded that the use of business advisory services is influenced by employee’s competence. Employees’ competence factors notably; employees competence of individual micro and small enterprise, number of on-job trainings given to employees, level of education considered when hiring, formal skills, access to information and labour productivity and employees engagement to attend business forums plays a key role in influencing how microenterprises use business advisory services. The study recommended that because business advisory services bring in new and fresh ideas into the business and also being a catalyst for change in the organization which brings growth and success to its organization, the managers and owners of microenterprise should seek business advisory services by providing employees with basic training and skills acquisitions opportunities should be provided to the employees formally and informally in order for them to be competent in operating the business organization. All business organization should therefore seek business advisory services in order for them to grow.
Keywords: Business Advisory Services, Employees Competence
