WHEN I decided to start my own business, I told myself that I wanted to keep this rezeki ‘barakah’ (blessed).

Speak to any business owner today and they will tell you one of the major challenges faced is sustaining and maintaining the right employees. Of course, one must find them first.

Being a newbie in the food industry, I talked to many experienced restaurateurs and businessmen on their experience, and the common issue faced by many is the difficulty in attracting local workers to work for them and thus, having to resort to employing foreign workers.

One café owner shared that the only local staff that had wanted to work for him failed to turn up to work on the opening day itself, despite being offered an attractive salary and other perks like free lodging, meal and transportation allowance.

“We had no choice but to employ foreign workers and the past years that they have been with us, they work diligently, they are honest and come to work on time everyday, rain or shine,” he said.

On very busy days when the café has catering projects that needed to be sent as early as 8am, he said these workers would actually work round the clock, taking turns to sleep at the shop.

Another food operator who has been in the industry for almost a decade or so shared that she had to resort to employing foreign workers that were here under tourist visa. These are the workers that have proven themselves to be dedicated and hardworking.

“But the danger here is that I am putting my employees’ position at risk. True enough, there have been occasions when they were stopped by the authorities who asked for money. They live in fear,” she said.

The new home minister had recently announced that the government was looking at renewing the guidelines for employing foreign workers. This is a much awaited move by us – the entrepreneurs.

A company must be at least six months old before it can apply for a permit for foreign workers and here the process may take up to three months or more, and subject to approval.

Because of the difficulty in attracting and sustaining local workers plus the existing ruling on companies that want to hire foreign workers, business owners often have to resort to employing “an agent” who does “wonders” with the foreigners’ passports and working visas for the “right price”.

Thus, I hope the new ruling on employing foreign workers would be straightforward for the interests of both the business operators and foreign workers.

Most of all, I hope it would totally eliminate the unnecessary middle-man system, which hinders the very intention of people who wants to keep their business ‘barakah’.

*A former business journalist, 30-something Zurinna Raja Adam is now taking on her dream of becoming an entrepreneur in the food industry.

**This article was published by The Sun Daily. Read the original article here.