UW–Madison coach: Daniel Langer, Assistant Vice Chancellor Business Services/Controller Emeritus
K.I. Satbayev Kazakh National Research Technical University (SU) team (Almaty): Aliya Akatayeva (Head of Commercialization & International Cooperation), Azhar Beissova (Director of HR Services), Gulnar Tokzhigitova (Director of Finance & Accounting), Adina Tolebayeva, Anar Kanatkhanova, and Gaukhar Balgozhina
Satbayev University’s (SU) team of human resources and finance staff worked to improve faculty and staff recruitment and retention in a competitive academic market: with the support of the institution’s leadership, they strived to become “Employer #1” among universities in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, which is home to 38 higher education institutions. Daniel Langer brought his career-long expertise in business services and university financial management to the SU team to ask tough questions and push them to justify their many reform ideas. Langer acknowledged that the SU team came to the project with the right level of “passion and energy” and institutional understanding of their goals. The results were impressive. For example, they implemented an onboarding program to mentor new employees and improve retention, and they developed a key performance indicator (KPI) system to motivate highly qualified employees with competitive salaries to increase their publications. After the team presented their project results at the final workshop in Almaty, a member of another Kazakhstani team requested that they share their experience with other universities, since national-level expectations for KPIs to measure research productivity are a challenge for all Kazakhstani faculty and administrators.
As Langer indicated in closing remarks, “The success of the project is due to Satbayev University leadership, the coaching team, and colleagues across the institution being passionately committed to the goals as a way to strengthen recruitment, retention and performance assessment. UW–Madison provided additional higher education measurement techniques and tools towards contributing to the success of the project.”
After the workshop, Langer and the other coaches visited the SU campus and learned about the academic programs that this internationally recognized university offers and the research it is engaged in. The group was struck by its commitment to sustainable development goals, with particular focus on water s