Situation
A logistics group with 620 employees across Baghdad, Basra, and Erbil was losing senior drivers, warehouse managers, and operations coordinators at a rate breaching multinational client SLAs and generating penalty charges. Exit interviews cited compensation as the primary departure reason in 78% of cases. Pay structures had not been reviewed in six years. Replacement costs exceeded USD 240,000 in the prior 12 months.
Complication
The company had 38 unique job titles with no consistent grading logic. Market benchmarking data for Iraqi logistics roles was unavailable through any standard survey provider. Three multinational client contracts contained SLA penalty clauses already triggering. When I reviewed the job title structure, I found two roles — 'Senior Driver A' and 'Senior Driver B' — paid at significantly different rates with no documented distinction between them. Investigation revealed this had been introduced four years earlier to justify a salary increase for a specific employee. That employee had since left, but the anomaly had propagated through the payroll system affecting 43 employees.
The Critical Decision — What Almontather Rassoul Saw and Did Differently
I presented this finding to the CEO as evidence that the pay structure had been corrupted by accumulated informal decisions rather than policy. That framing changed the conversation from 'why are we doing this review' to 'we need this review.' The engagement scope was extended as a direct result. The CEO had been planning to limit the review to four job families. After seeing the A/B anomaly, he authorized a full organization-wide job evaluation.
Methodology — Why This Approach and Not Another
I chose a points-factor job evaluation over market pricing as the primary structuring method because the company's jobs were not well-known enough in the Iraqi market to be directly benchmarked — the market data simply did not exist for most of their role types. The points-factor method creates defensible internal equity first, which can then be calibrated to market data at the grade level rather than the job level. That approach was more robust given the data constraints.
Resolution — Delivered by Almontather Rassoul / MRC Firm Ltd.
A points-factor job evaluation rationalizing 38 titles into 12 job families with defined grade boundaries. Primary market data collected through a structured survey of 11 comparable Iraqi logistics and supply chain employers, supplemented by Gulf reference data adjusted for purchasing power. Salary bands set at the 60th market percentile. A Basra location differential introduced for three job families given the oil sector logistics premium. Implementation sequenced by attrition priority. Pay equity corrections proposed for 91 employees below the new grade minimums.
What Was Not Fully Resolved — and Why
The pay equity correction for 91 employees required a budget increase the finance director initially resisted. A phased implementation over two payroll cycles was agreed, with corrections prioritized by attrition risk. Full correction had not been fully implemented at time of document production, though the highest-risk roles were addressed within 30 days of the recommendation.
“Rassoul found an anomaly in our pay structure that we had not noticed in six years and used it to explain in one meeting why the entire review was necessary. The CFO had been blocking the budget for this engagement for four months. That finding ended the argument.”
— Group CEO, Baghdad Logistics Group
Consultant: Almontather Rassoul, PhD · MRC Firm Ltd. · montather-rassoul.com · linkedin.com/in/montatherrassoul