Gianforte pushes telecommuting in north-central Montana

U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., told a group in Havre Wednesday that telecommuting can be a way to attract people to move to rural Montana as well as bring money into local economies.

"The reality is that the internet changes the rules of where you're located and how you work," he said. "The reality is now, with the internet, you don't have to be physically located where the business is."

Gianforte met with local business owners, representatives from Triangle Communications and District 4 Human Resources Development Council during the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce-sponsored meeting at the Duck Inn Vineyard Room.

Earlier Wednesday, Gianforte met with community leaders in Chester and spoke with the St. Mary Working Group later in Havre.

Telecommuting is a great opportunity for Havre, Gianforte said. many desk jobs, from insurance agents to software developers, can be brought into the local community through telecommuting.

"In a very real sense, for so long our primary exports have been beef, grain and our kids," he said. " ... So we've got to add some new cylinders on the economic engine that complement ag, and telecommuting is one of those."

He added that the company Right Now Technologies, which he started in 1997 in Bozeman and was sold to Oracle Corporation for $1.8 billion in 2012, employed more than 1,000 people across the United States and the world.

When his business started, it had some major clients outside of Montana, but Gianforte and his wife did not want to move, so they worked remotely from their home. He said that what he found with his employees that he hired as telecommuters had a better balance of life, were closer to their families and were able to live where it was affordable to them.

"We know the quality of life in rural Montana is phenomenal," he said, adding that one of the reasons people leave the state is because of the shortage in good-paying jobs.

Tele-commuting is an effective way to get people to move back or move to the state as well as bring increased vitality in a way that complements the agricultural market, he said. In the state, agriculture is the number one driver in the community, he said, but as time and technology advances, agriculture cannot increase its available jobs.

In 2015, Gianforte, said, he worked with the Montana Department of Commerce, in a project co-sponsored by the Montana Chamber of Commerce, to create an invitation: "Montanans: Come Home, And Bring Your Job With You." This invitation was sent to 20,000 Montanans who had moved out of the state and was aimed to encourage them to move back to Montana and telecommute.

He added that former Shelby Mayor Larry Bonderud presented those invitations at the Shelby High School reunion to about 1,500 people and by Christmas of that year six families had moved back to Shelby. Gianforte said that not all the credit can go to the invitations, but the six who moved back had grown up in Shelby and left because of the job prospects.

"Most Montanans who have left want to come back home, but they'll say the same thing, there are no jobs," Gianforte said. "But it's amazing, you can come home as long as you bring their jobs with them."

The six families who moved back to Shelby bought or built homes, brought their spouses with them and enrolled children in local schools, he said. They also shop in town and boost the economy of the community.

He added that tens of thousands of jobs are available which can be filled by people who live in Havre. One online resource that is included in the invitation for people to use to find telecommuting jobs is https://www.flexjobs.com/, which is a for-profit website that charges a monthly fee.

The invitation has no copyright and is free for communities in Montana to use or alter to attract people to their specific area, he said.

"The best job for them to bring back here is the one they already have," he said.

The Hi-Line is in need of recruiting doctors to the local hospitals, he said, but the spouses need work, too. This is when telecommuting can be utilized, they don't have to sacrifice their careers if their spouse takes a job in rural Montana because telecommuting offers the opportunity to take their careers with them.  

"All desk jobs can be done remotely if the employer is willing to provide that flexibility," Gianforte said.

He added that telecommuters do have to occasionally travel for work, but spend most of their time in the local community.

He added that his congressional state director, Lesley Robinson, who lives on a ranch outside or Zortman, was the most qualified person for the job but was unable to be in a physical office, so she telecommutes. He said she has done a fantastic job and is a good example of the quality of employees who telecommute.

According to a FlexJobs study Montana is the No. 1 state for telecommuting per capita, he said, adding that it may be because Montana doesn't have that many jobs.

"This is a way to complement existing household income," Gianforte said. "It's a way to attract people when the spouse needs a job, as well. It's also a way for local folks to participate in a much bigger labor market based on their skills and interest."

Montana's average wage is $36,000 a year, he added, but telecommuters average between $75,000 to $100,0000 a year. It also benefits the companies which allow telecommuting by opening up a wider range of workforce to be employed, lowering facility costs and creating a more loyal workforce with less attrition.

Business owner and Havre City Council member Sarah McKinney said that one of the reasons Havre can support telecommuters is because of the broadband capabilities, but there are still areas around Havre and the state which don't.

Gianforte said no universal service exists. One of the reasons for the dead spots is because out-of-state telecommunications companies which receive Universal Service Funds - a federal communication fund for rural areas - do not use the funds for installing broadband in rural areas, he said. That is unlike local telecommunications cooperatives, like Triangle Communications, which has installed a large number of broadband lines in the past years.

He added that this is a problem which he is trying to address. He said that high-speed internet is on most people's criteria when they are purchasing a home and is seen as a necessity.

"It's not a luxury anymore," he said. "It's my No. 1 priority on the telecommunications committee is to figure out how to further develop rural broadband."