Next steps towards a professional, strategic and innovative civil service in Kazakhstan

This chapter analyses the main findings from benchmarking Kazakhstan against OECD countries’ human resource management practices. The main findings suggest that Kazakhstan has developed, or is in the process of developing, human resource management frameworks that are consistent with those of most OECD countries. Likewise, Kazakhstan shares many of OECD countries’ concerns and priorities for reform, namely in terms of leadership development, competency management and performance management, which have been subject to significant and recent measures in Kazakhstan. To consolidate its professional civil service and develop a more strategic orientation to human resources management, Kazakhstan should consider consolidating and standardising its approach to skills in the civil service through competency-based management pursuing investments in its senior civil service and developing a performance culture.