Bringing our Kids Home

Statement

Bringing our kids back to Montana not only reunites families, but it also would have a substantial positive effect for Montana's economy. The reality, too, is that more and more workers are attracted to idea of telecommuting.

This why I'm proposing a new program within the Montanan Department of Commerce that will work to bring Montana kids home and bring their jobs with them. Our goal will be to bring 1,000 Montanans home during my first term. It will be a two-pronged effort that will involve:

Mailing invitations out twice a year to the alumni of each state university who live out of state, inviting them to "come home to Montana and bring a job with them".
Executing radio and digital campaigns with the same message targeting Montanans who have left the state.
THE PROBLEM

One of the best aspects of the success we had at RightNow Technologies was how we were able to bring back dozens of young Montanans to the state and pay them a national wage. As we attempted to recruit new workers we continually found that the most interested candidates were those who had grown up in Montana, but were forced to move away to find better job opportunities.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon remains all too common. Montana is 49th in the country in wages, overall, and dead last in wages for millennials. A survey of income data from Business Insider found that the average wage for a millennial in Montana was just $18,000 a year, making Montana 50th nationally in wages for millennials.

Partly due to the low wage opportunities, Montana has seen a net outmigration of college graduates since 1991 according to the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The researchers note that this represents a "weak link" in Montana's economy. With an aging population, our state needs younger people working, paying taxes, buying homes, and putting their kids in our schools. Younger people also make our communities more vibrant and future focused.

Reversing this trend and creating more opportunities for young workers begins with creating a strong and vibrant private sector where Montana-based businesses can prosper and create good-paying jobs. Telecommuting is another powerful tool that we now have to keep our kids home.

TELECOMMUTING

The internet removes geographic barriers. All it takes is an internet connection and a person can do any desk job from, basically, anywhere. Montana is already beginning to benefit from this new phenomenon as the #1 state per capita for telecommuting, with just over 7 percent of employed workers work for an out-of-state firm over the internet. When I toured 60 Montana communities last year to promote this concept, I found telecommuters in every community I visited.

The data is showing that 1) More and more workers want the ability to telecommute and 2) telecommuters are more productive than office workers. Some stats from Global Workplace Analytics:

Two-thirds of people want to work from home.
46 percent of companies report that allowing telework has reduced attrition
Younger workers are attracted to telework, rating "job flexibility" an 8 on a 10-point scale of important job benefits.

Over two-thirds of employers reported increase productivity amongst their telecommuters
People often think of technical jobs when they think of telecommuting, but the reality is that all kinds of jobs can be done by telecommuters. Graphic designers, claims adjusters, lawyers, architects, and even some healthcare workers can just as easily work remotely as they can in an office. For example, Oracle, the company that bought RightNow Technologies currently has more than 1,000 job openings across several different fields, many with a six figure salary, that could be filled by Montana telecommuters in any Montana community.

WHAT WE CAN DO

When I announced my run for governor, I promised to wage an all-out campaign to bring our kids home. Promoting telecommuting will be a major part of this effort. In fact, when I'm governor, one of my goals is to have Montana be the number 1 state in telecommuting every year I am governor and recruit back a minimum of 1,000 Montanans during my first term in office.

At the state level, there are some concrete steps that we can take to make this happen. First, we'll mail invitations out twice a year to the alumni of each state university who live out of state. The invitations would encourage alumni to "come home to Montana and bring a job with them" and would provide links to websites and resources for those who might be interested in moving home and working remotely.

We carried out this exact proposal in 2015 as part of our Better Montana Jobs Initiative. Costs were low and Montanans started coming home.

The other step we can take is executing radio and digital campaigns targeting Montanans who have left the state. We can run radio ads in larger metropolitan areas with a high number of Montana expatriates such as Seattle, Portland, Denver, or the Bay Area. The ads will encourage Montanans who want to move back to explore the possibility of telecommuting.

These programs will be carried out by the Montana Department of Commerce.

BROADBAND

One of the biggest potential issues that people raise with telecommuting in Montana is a lack of reliable internet access. However, many smaller Montana towns actually have better service than larger cities. Communities like Chinook, Malta, and White Sulphur Springs all have 1 GB fiber in every home. In Eureka, 60% of the homes have fiber. Also, supply follows demand. When we started RightNow Technologies we had a single copper connection down to Denver that often got cut. As we grew and other businesses grew around us, and demand for good internet increased, so did our service. We have sufficient Internet bandwidth in most Montana communities today to our allow kids to start coming home.

CONCLUSION

Montana has languished for long enough at the bottom of the nation in wages and our kids have become our most precious export. With good leadership and the right mindset, we can use the tools at our disposal to create a high-wage economy in Montana. We have a strong work ethic, an educated workforce, good schools, tight-knit communities, abundant public lands, and unrivaled natural beauty.

The impact of people moving back would be especially felt in our more rural communities that struggle to maintain population. In places like Troy, Shelby, or Baker just 5-10 families moving home each year with high wage jobs would have a major positive economic impact. New houses would be built creating construction jobs, the tax base would increase, local shops and restaurants would have new customers, and school enrollment would increase.

Unfortunately, career politicians in Helena seem okay with Montana's low-wage status. Some even make excuses for it. When I'm governor, there will be no excuses. We'll work to raise wages and bring our kids home.

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