A New Frontier for Tech Talent
Companies find tech talent in the mountains and valleys of Virginia BIG CITIES HAVE LONG BEEN SYNONYMOUS WITH ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY. BUT WHAT IF THAT’S NOT
companies to capture and retain this talent in areas where costs are lower than more densely populated urban locations.
UNIVERSALLY TRUE? What if good opportunities also can be
found in rural areas or smaller cities, where the cost of living and doing business is much lower? MIT economist David Autor caused a stir by daring to ask these questions at a recent meeting of the American Economic Association. But his supposition was no surprise to the many tech companies that call Virginia’s rural areas home. “We just believe that there are pockets in rural America that allow for scalability and sustainability, and don’t have some of the detractors that urban environments have,” says Brendan Walsh, senior vice president of partner relations for IT consulting firm 1901 Group. In large cities, he says, there’s a lot more job-hopping and competition for tech talent. In the college town of Blacksburg, 1901 Group is able to easily recruit and retain top employees. To encourage other technology firms to make the move, VEDP launched the Rural and Small Metro Tech Centers Initiative in 2019. This program aims to bring 8,600 tech-related jobs to the Commonwealth’s rural areas and small metros by 2029 by highlighting and facilitating attractive environments that will support attraction of tech companies. Rather than look overseas for this talent, more companies and leading site consultants that advise them are discovering they can save money and increase efficiencies by onshoring. “It is not so wild a dream that we can create digital literacy and tech talent hot spots in rural communities that will generate higherpaying jobs and attract businesses seeking lower costs,” notes Dean Barber, principal of Barber Business Advisors. Computer science graduates continue to stream out of the Commonwealth’s well-regarded colleges and universities. Virginia has the second-highest concentration of tech workers and the sixth-largest net tech employment in the country, according to Cyberstates 2019, and data from Cyberseek shows that the Commonwealth has the largest cybersecurity workforce on the East Coast. VEDP’s initiative aims to enable tech 60
The initiative aligns with a larger push at the state level to scale up tech talent across Virginia. Another initiative, the Tech Talent Investment Program, focuses on increasing that talent base. Virginia has committed $1 billion to more than double the annual number of graduates in computer science with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and related fields. The initiative will ultimately result in 25,000 to 35,000 additional graduates over the next two decades in excess of current levels. As part of the Rural and Small Metro Tech Centers Initiative, VEDP staff use a data-driven process to match companies and communities, with the first phase focused on onshore delivery centers. First, they weigh various criteria to identify the sectors that make sense for Virginia’s rural and small metropolitan areas. Then they identify companies within those sectors that might consider an investment in Virginia, as well as community-specific criteria that could entice them to make a move. At that point, they identify Virginia communities that fit those criteria before developing company-specific proposals that include specific incentives to offset employers’ real estate, operational, and recruitment costs. The initiative will be rolled out in phases. Future phases, which will start in late 2019, will focus on different subsectors or project archetypes in the tech space (e.g., IT government contracting offices and software product companies). The initial target areas — Southwest Virginia, the New River Valley, and the Shenandoah Valley — have three key traits in common. One, they all offer access to a highly educated workforce, with local public, four-year higher education institutions producing computer science graduates. Two, they share a low cost of doing business, with median salaries for tech occupations approximately 25% below the U.S. average, according to Emsi. And three, their low cost of living, cultural assets, and natural beauty make them attractive places to live.