Opinion: If a city paid you $10K to relocate, would you?

Springfield Business Journal starts out each new year publishing a special edition: The Outlook.

It’s a peek inside the minds of industry experts, where we ask them questions about the current and future state of business – and get their projections for the upcoming year.

The edition is a small break from the normal business news to give readers a more contemplative economic outlook for the year, usually covering a dozen industries selected in the newsroom.

In conducting research for one of my Q&As, I discovered an innovative way another Midwestern city is solving their own brain drain, i.e. the loss of local talent. Straight west 180 miles on Interstate 44, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pays remote workers $10,000 to move to the city and helps them get settled.

It’s called Tulsa Remote. The initiative has received press in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York Post, Harvard Business Review and CBS News.

Take a guess how many workers have participated in the program. Over 2,500. And according to the organization’s economic impact report, it’s resulted in more than $300 million in direct employment income for city residents – new money infused from companies outside of the city.

Think what that could do for Springfield.

Here’s how it works: Individuals fill out an application after completing five eligibility requirements, including full-time, remote employment; proof of residency outside of the state for the 12 months prior; and commitment to relocate to Tulsa within a year of approval. Those selected for the next round schedule a 30-minute virtual interview with Tulsa Remote staff, and those selected to move forward perform a background check, income verification and new member orientation. Next is the payday – but only after a lease is signed or a home is purchased. Renters receive the $10,000 grant funds in monthly disbursements, while homebuyers have the option of monthly payments or a lump sum.

The initiative sounds like something born out of the 2020 pandemic, when working from home became commonplace. Nope. Tulsa community leaders launched the remote-worker grant program in 2018. At that time, I can remember conversations about Springfield’s brain drain going on for years prior.

Tulsa got creative to solve their problem. Springfield can, too. We’re already highly touted as a premiere remote working community. The Wall Street Journal has Springfield at the top of the heap for remote workers. Fiber internet? Check. Low costs? Check. Ease of transportation? Check. Arts and outdoors? Check, check. Now is the time to capitalize.

All we need is the money. That’s how these things go, right?

In Tulsa, the George Kaiser Family Foundation stepped forward to financially support the program. The opportunity exists for Springfield-based foundations and corporations to do the same for the betterment of the community. Tulsa Remote says it’s “building a knowledge economy, one worker at a time.”

In my Outlook interview with Ericka Schmeeckle, Springfield’s interim director of workforce development, she informed me the city had made a run at grant funding for a similar-type recruitment initiative. It actually involved Tulsa, along with communities in northwest Arkansas – a tri-state partnership, she said, to apply for a large Department of Labor grant. It didn’t pan out, but Schmeeckle remains hopeful.

“I think there is a huge takeaway for Springfield leaders here,” she said. “Imagine if we did something like this – could be a game-changer, and now is the time with the attention we’ve gotten about the remote work environment.”

Credit to Tulsa for being innovative and showing that over time the return on investment is there. Tulsa Remote’s latest impact report indicates participating members averaged over $150,000 in annual income – representing nearly 12 times the expenses paid out through the program. That boosted county and state sales tax revenues by $2 million-$3 million a year. And it appears the movers found they actually liked Tulsa. Organizers say the program has a 76% resident retention rate, and they even recruit new residents: For every two Tulsa Remote participants, the city gains three residents.

I agree with Schmeeckle. Springfield is at a pivotal time. Momentum is building and the creative thinkers are present. We just need the money.

Springfield Business Journal Editorial Vice President Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.