Jordan Leonard spoke at the Business Expansion and Retention meeting on Oct. 11.
BEAR Press Release
While at times it may seem that there are few alternatives for work in the Castle Country area, there is at least one thing happening that can not only increase someone’s income with part-time work but also put many individuals into positions of earning good dollars full time while not having to commute or live outside the area. That program is called the Rural Online Initiative.
This was the message delivered to the general board of the Business Expansion and Retention at its Oct. 11 meeting. Both Russell Goodrich (the Program Director) and Jordan Leonard (the area’s representative) spoke about the program.
A bill in the legislature in the last session created the program, which will help people obtain not only an education in remote work, but may also in the future help to connect those people with work in metropolitan areas.
“This program may not be for everyone, but for some in our community, this idea of remote working can be valuable,” said Leonard, who previously was the economic development director for Emery County. “It depends on people’s personalities, skills and their ability to work in this way.”
Leonard said that the job losses in some rural parts of the state have been in double digits over the last few years and this program was developed to help some people be able to work without having to move away.
“Our goal is to work with other agencies in state and local governments to help fill these gaps,” said Leonard. “While jobs are important, what we intend to work on is to help people with not only with that, but with extra income for those that need it. This could help people such as stay-at-home-moms or a disabled person who wants to work and could use added income.”
He said when a business hires someone to work traditionally, they have had to provide an office space, the furniture and a computer, along with the overhead that goes with it. That initial expense is about $2,000 and then there is ongoing costs as well.
“But if they hire a remote worker, that is only about $200,” he said. “People can work from their home and save the business a lot of money.”
Freelance skills can provide a lot of opportunity for those that are willing to take on the responsibility. Leonard said with his new position, he has been meeting more and more people in the area that are already performing remote work for some very large companies. He said that many have been able to pick up jobs through websites such as freelance.com.
“I know as we present some of this to people they might see it as pie in the sky,” he explained. “But it really is not. There is real opportunity here.”
He said one of the main charges of the initiative is to connect with companies that need remote workers and then to find people who can fit into that relationship with those firms to work for them.
“In the past, some companies tried this remote working process, but the productivity went way down,” said Leonard. “That is because there was no training mechanism in place for the remote workers, nothing there to provide guidelines and expertise on what remote work was. That is what we will be doing from here forward. The educational piece on how to season people into moving into these types of positions with the right skills is needed. This initiative is about bringing people into the new economy.”
He said that a large percentage of jobs today are being shipped out, away from companies traditional brick and mortar locations. Freelancing is becoming more and more prominent. A lot of it is project work. He said in the next five years, much of what people have known as traditional work will be flipped and changed and freelancing will become a much larger part of economies around the world. He stated that presently 36 percent of the total workforce does at least some freelancing. A little less than half of those do it out of necessity, while others (about 40 percent) use that kind of work to supplement their other income.
“This kind of work is not insecure,” said Leonard. “Many who do it love it. Every job that brings money in from outside the area supports the local economy. We are looking for income here, not necessarily just jobs.”
Goodrich said that he examined a few freelance websites and found 200 jobs that matched his skill set, so the work is obviously available.
“It was very enlightening,” he said. “I would never have guessed there would be that many jobs that I could do from home. These jobs also paid a very high hourly salary.”
Leonard pointed out that since most freelance jobs are done through the Internet, having access to quality service is important and Castle Country is prime for that kind of thing because the area is rated fourth in the state for top grade internet service.
Goodrich spoke about the propensity of young people to leave the area because of lack of opportunity, and pointed out that this kind of things could be a game changer in that arena as well.
“So, many of us have kids who have left because of that,” he said. “We are working toward making it so that if someone has a skill here that applies, they will stay or maybe it will even bring back those that have skills as well.”
He said that part of the working solution for the group will be a program called Slack, which is similar to texting, but includes many other features that will be helpful when working in groups.
The goals of the program is to find the right people for these kinds of positions, to educate them for what is needed (through partners with the program) and then to connect them with the jobs that are available. Leonard said they already have 70 people signed up for the program.
He said that the training is not free, but there will be scholarships available for those who qualify.
Goodrich explained there is an initial one-month course that people can take that will get them a certificate, which is recognized by Utah State University, that will certify them to work remotely.
Those running the program will also be doing town hall meetings to tell people about the program. Meetings include one in Castle Dale (county building) on Oct. 16 (6 p.m.), one on Oct. 23 in Huntington (city hall) at 6 p.m. and then another in Price on Nov. 14 at Price City Hall at 5 p.m. There will also be a presentation at the Nov. 9 John Curtis Business Conference at USU Eastern.
The program also has a website, remoteworkcertificate.com, where more information can be obtained by those that are interested.