<![CDATA[This study examines how work-life balance and job satisfaction relate to employee performance at institutions receiving the BPDPKS Palm Oil Human Resources Scholarship in North Sumatra, a setting that remains largely unexplored in human resource management research. A cross-sectional explanatory survey was carried out at three vocational education providers: the Medan Agricultural Development Polytechnic, the Medan Industrial Chemical Technology Polytechnic, and the Indonesian Palm Oil Technology Institute of Deli Serdang. From a population of 165 employees, 117 respondents were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling, and the sample size was verified against power-based criteria (G*Power and the inverse square root method). Data were collected with a five-point Likert questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The measurement model met the reliability and validity criteria. Work-life balance (path coefficient = 0.437, t-statistic = 6.822, p < 0.001) and job satisfaction (path coefficient = 0.424, t-statistic = 6.993, p < 0.001) each had a positive and significant effect on employee performance, with comparable effect sizes (f² = 0.315 and 0.336), and together they explained 48.1% of its variance (R² = 0.481). The findings extend the Job Demands-Resources and Social Exchange perspectives to institutions that deliver a national affirmative-action program, and they show that welfare-oriented HR policies are relevant to performance in this setting. Because the data are cross-sectional, self-reported, and drawn from three institutions, the results should be read as statistical associations and not as proof of causality; the mediating role of job satisfaction is left for future research.]]>
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