As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of February, 2020, all employees of the Croatian company Kanaan who take out a housing loan at a commercial bank this year will receive a five percent non-refundable subsidy from the company on the amount of the loan raised, there are also awards for best employees, scholarships for their children, and more.

Kanaan, a leading producer of chips in Croatia, whose factory is located in Donji Miholjac very near the border with Hungary, bought 32 laptops back in early February 2020. What makes this praseworthy is the fact that those laptops Kanaan purchased are intended for the children of the company's employees, who are students of primary and secondary schools. The workers got the laptops as a gift from the company, for free. This, however, is only the beginning of the story, according to a report from Telegram.

All Kanaan employees whose children attend universities in Croatia are entitled to 1,500 kuna a month, no matter what they study. If they successfully complete their studies, they don't have to return the scholarship money. Those who have enrolled in a mechanical or electrical engineering college with the intention of finding a job at Kanaan after graduation will receive 3,500 kuna per month.

Kanaan offers its employees the opportunity to continue their education or further training. In the amount of 20,000 kuna a year, the company will pay them the cost of enrollment, tuition and other expenses related to continuing education.

If an employee takes out a housing loan of, for example, 50,000 euros, the company will pay him 2,500 euros.

If a Kanaan worker needs to take out an emergency loan, he can count on his company for up to 15,000 kuna at a four percent interest rate, which is a legal obligation when it comes to borrowing. In the last two years, about thirty Kanaan workers have used this opportunity on various occasions.

Zvonko Popovic, the 100 percent owner of Kanaan, a company that employs 130 people with an average salary of about six thousand kuna a month, finally agreed to talk to Telegram about the benefits he provides to his workers, which for many Croatian employees seem like utopian fairy tales about the perfect company and the dream employer.

Popovic says that he didn't do everything that his workers get to enjoy today in order to brag about it in the media, which is why he was so hesitant to discuss it publicly at all, but because he believes that, given the contribution they have made to the development and successful business of the company, they completely deserve such treatment.

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As Novac writes on the 6th of August, 2019, the now burning problem of a lack of qualified personnel in the Croatian tourism industry began escalating to unseen levels last year, and this year it has only intensified.

Labour import quotas have been increasing owing to the now rather desperate demand in the tourism sector, and as it has become difficult to find people from the Balkans, let alone people from the European Union, all of whom can work in Croatia without needing a work permit (apart from Austrian citizens, who still require one because of the barriers to Croatian nationals on the Austrian labour market).

Even third country nationals from other, nearby Balkan countries (non-EU countries such as Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) have been hard to come by. Therefore, third country nationals from distant lands such as Filipinos, Indians and even seasonal workers from African countries can often be seen working in Croatian hospitality establishments. Raising quotas has somewhat solved the issues of this tourist season, in a sense, but the problem now, as Novi List writes, continues to be Croatia's mundane, draconian and utterly senseless processes for registering workers from outside of the territory of the European Economic Area.

Although we now in the very height of the Croatian tourist season, Robert Marić from the popular coastal town of Crikvenica still can't get the papers he needs for his employee from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina to work, who is still awaiting approval of his residence, he is also experiencing the same issues with his workers who come from Serbia. Both of these countries are outside of the EU.

''Two months ago, I handed over the papers to the police for two of my employees, one is a woman from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other is Serbian. To this day, this hasn't been resolved. I guess I'll get them in early September, when I don't even need them anymore. It's now early August, and we don't have people yet. The fact is that people can't be found for work, and in many hospitality establishments, grandparents, parents and uncles are having to come to the rescue... And when you find staff from outside [of Croatia and the EU], you can't get their paperwork done,'' this rightfully angry employer explained, adding that one such form he submitted to the police took twelve days to reach another floor of the same building. Something which is utterly unjustifiable given the workforce issues Croatia now faces.

Srećko Blažević, the husband of a tourism worker who lives in Croatia, said he came to live in Crikvenica from Vrbovec, and he married his wife thirteen years ago, who is originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina and has citizenship of that country.

''In Croatia, we have our own property, among other things, we've got a house in Vrgorac. However, we came to live in Crikvenica, we rented an apartment legally... However, the problem arose with the police where we asked for a residence permit [attesting to that new address] and they asked us for a wedding certificate to prove that we were married, as well as proof of having deposited 35,000 kuna in a bank in order to guarantee that my wife would have something to live on.

We already had a work contract to show she was starting work the next day, and thus in a month's time she'd receive a salary, and regardless, we own property in Croatia. But the worst part is that we submitted this request two months ago and we're still waiting. I don't know when we will get the approval,'' said Blažević in total disbelief, pointing out that it was not a problem at all that they had to pay, but just that these very necessary papers were taking such a ridiculously long time.

He also pointed out that his wife even wanted to open a cleaning service, in perspective, but if she has to wait for the most basic paperwork for three whole months, then that doesn't make any sense at all. Croatia has lost out once again with its draconian paper-loving policies, as their idea was to hire two more employees in that would-have-been cleaning business.

Robert Palić, who has several catering establishments and a hotel in Crikvenica said that as many as forty employees had to be sought from outside of Croatian territory this year. But luckily for him, the issue of paperwork went relatively painlessly, and everything was resolved and done in about twenty or so days.

''I found 90 percent of my people in Belgrade. All my chefs are from there. I found them upon recommendation. Otherwise, I even have an employee from Tanzania, a waiter who graduated in political science in Belgrade, and who worked on a cruiser, so we're pleased with that,'' concluded Palić.

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The news and media in Croatia are usually dominated by three things. The more serious look at corruption within politics, usually happening at a very high level, the economic situation and people arguing whether or not things are ''really'' that bad, and then the self-proclaimed ''influencers'' posting pretty pictures of the sea (and themselves, of course) and banging the tired old drum of having ''discovered Croatia''. Other than that, you're not likely to read much more.

The issue with the economic situation in Croatia however, is that it's somewhat paradoxical. To say that there is simply not enough work isn't quite true, but to say that there aren't enough people to engage in the work isn't quite true either.

Croatia is a country with too many potential work positions and not enough staff, which also somehow manages to be a country with no jobs on offer. The arguments are old ones, and they typically involve raising the living wage in order to stimulate the economy and prevent the ever leaking demographic tap of Croats seeking work abroad. While this is of course necessary, first the state must relieve employers of their multiple heavy tax burders, the very burdens which stop a higher amount of net money landing in the hands of their employees each month.

This story of this paradox is a long one, and best saved for another time, but there is proof out there among all of the negative and depressing headlines that you definitely can succeed in Croatia. From the likes of Rimac Automobili to Varteks, many Croatian companies do very well. Get to know one of them, which over the last twenty years, has made so many cables that they could wrap them around the earth's equator forty times.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 14th of June, 2019, in between looking at heavily edited images of ''influencers'' posing in front of old churches and reading about another politician having been caught ''with his hands in the till'', you'll likely have read about Croatia having lost its industry, with particular emphasis on the metal processing industry. How Croatia produces nothing, how it doesn't even pay off to produce things in Croatia anymore, and so on. Just like with everything in Croatia, that's not entirely true, as RTL reports.

It's true that there are no longer many companies operating within this field in Croatia out there anymore, it's also true that there are even fewer who work in three shifts, seven days per week, but they do exist, and they've been exporting cable very successfully for the last twenty years.

RTL was naturally suspicious of such bold claims from within Croatia's borders, so they sent their journalist Goran Latković to the Eurocabel company located in Jakovlje, where cables are rolled 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

This factory from Jakovlje, Zagreb County, has made so many cables that they could wrap them around the Earth's equator as many as forty times.

"They work in four shifts, the drive is almost never stopped, there are only four days per year where they don't work. There's a lot of work. In the last twenty years, they've made so many cables that they could wrap them around the Earth's equator forty times, that's six million kilometres of cable,'' the aforementioned RTL reporter stated upon having seen the factory with his own eyes.

"We believe that a starting vision as well as a strategy is needed to reach this level. This drive cost about 25 million euros, and that was ten years ago. Our major customers are from abroad, in Germany and Austria. We have a total of 135 employees. We have problems with the workforce, and that's been critical for the last few years. Since last year, thirty people have left, and we haven't been able to employ as many,'' the factory stated in conversation with RTL.

Despite the issues they face, the success of this factory in Croatia is almost unheard of, and proves that with the right vision and the ability to just keep going, you can succeed. Even in Croatia.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of March, 2019, Business Matchmaker, organised by the eSTUDENT student association and the Office for consulting and career development at Zagreb's Faculty of Economics, will be held on the 26th of March this year at Zagreb's Faculty of Economics (Trg JF Kennedy 6), beginning at 9:00. The completion of the official part is expected to be at 15:00.

This innovative project allows students to personally present themselves in a short four minute selection interview to a group of desired companies. Interviews will be held in the halls of the faculty, and the continuation of the meeting and greeting, to which all participants are invited, will be in "Kefi" after 15:00 that same day.

Business Matchmaker is an event which resembles the speed dating principle and is intended for EFZG students to represent themselves to their potential employers. After the interview, employers and students will evaluate each other and the best students can then expect another round of interviews, where they will be able to learn more and find out more about employment opportunities in their desired companies.

In this interesting and useful way, students on the lookout for an employment position are able to properly develop their self-presentation skills and get to know how the labour market works firsthand. This year's Business Matchmaker will see the participation of as many as 21 companies divided into five different groups.

Lucija Matašin shared her personal experience of last year's Business Matchmaker and what it did for her career-wise:

"By participating in Business Matchmaker, I got a student job, which is honestly everything but ''student'' style. Along with that [I got] a great reference for my CV and a lot of motivation and courage to make it easier to deal with stress in similar situations in the future. I met the people from the company, which I might once meet again, because the world is really small and who knows where I'll be tomorrow, and maybe I'll bump into some of these people again on my way. This eSTUDENT initiative and the Office for consulting and career development really provide EFZG students with something they don't get through their classes.''

The companies participating in the project are 24sata, Addiko Bank, Atlantic Grupa (Group), ATOS, British American Tobacco, Croatia Osiguranje (Insurance), Deloitte, DIV Group, EC, INA, Kaufland, King ICT, KPMG, L'Oreal Adria, mStart, Philip Morris Zagreb, Samsung, SofaScore, Syskit, Talentarium and Zagrebačka banka.

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