Bring Our Families Back Wrapup

 Telecommute to a telecommuting roundtable!  We had so many positive responses from our roundtables around the state that we are offering a virtual roundtable for those who weren’t able to attend one in person.  This will take place Thursday, July 2 at 4:00 p.m. MST.

Email bettermontanajobs@gmail.com to request registration for the virtual roundtable. Spots are limited, so request today!

A couple of weeks ago Susan and I wrapped up the main part of our Bring Our Families Back telecommuting tour.  Over two weeks we drove about 4,000 miles and met with people in over 35 communities in Montana, including our larger towns, a reservation, and many rural areas.  We loved getting to know more of the wonderful people in our state!

Here is some of what we learned:

• We found telecommuters in every Montana community we visited. Plus, the opportunity to bring more families and friends back to Montana got people excited.
• Sufficiently fast Internet connections exist in most Montana towns to support telecommuting, and many rural communities have better connections than larger towns.
• Telecommuting is not just for Techies. We discovered people telecommuting as travel agents, event planners, insurance agents, project managers, medical transcriptionists and other non-Techie jobs. Basically any desk job where you only need an Internet-connected computer and a phone can be done via telecommuting.
• Many Montanans want to come home, and telecommuting now makes it possible.
• People were generally unaware that there are thousands of high wage jobs open today that can be filled from any community in Montana (some of the companies are listed in our guide).

In addition to bringing our families and friends back, telecommuting benefits an entire community. Each telecommuter builds or buys a home, creating construction and real estate jobs. They enroll their kids in our schools, making them stronger.  Also their higher wages make the local economic pie bigger to support local restaurants and retailers.

As a result of the tour, many of the communities we visited have decided to incorporate telecommuting into their economic development efforts to strengthen their towns.  Perhaps your community can incorporate some of these ideas!

1. Multiple communities committed to include the telecommuting guides in welcome packs for thousands of attendees at high school reunions this summer to encourage them to come home.
2. Many communities are working to catalog their local telecommuters and tell their stories on the chamber or town web site, so others know they can work nationally, but live back home.
3. Some are looking to post stories of local telecommuters on high school Facebook and other social media sites.
4. Numerous moms and grandmothers took extra telecommuting guides to mail to their kids and grandkids to bring them back home. You can also email a link to a PDF version of the guide.
5. Many towns discussed starting with our telecommuting guide, but adapting it with local stories and pictures to create a town-specific version to hand out at reunions, the chamber and in hotel rooms. Mitchell’s Garage in Kalispell, who designed the guide, can help if you are interested.
6. Journalists were encouraged to write up local telecommuting success stories in their newspapers to inspire family members to come home and stay there. All were sure the local moms and grandmas would clip the articles and send them to their kids and grandkids who have moved away.
7. MT Job Service saw telecommuting as a way to help the spouse of a candidate continue a career in a smaller community.
8. Some communities discussed a central telecommuting space or coffee shop where telecommuters can work, especially if their home has insufficient bandwidth.
9. Real estate agents wanted materials about where sufficient bandwidth is available in communities so they can sell to potential telecommuters. Local internet service providers agreed to supply it.
10. In addition to targeting Montanans who have moved away, communities with tourist traffic wanted to entice returning visitors to make Montana their home by promoting telecommuting in airports, hotels, and lodges.

Do you have other suggestions for promoting telecommuting and bringing back our families?  Please share them with us!  Leave a comment below or contact us.

Finally I want to thank the Montana Chamber of Commerce, all the local chambers, economic development and Job Service offices, the MSU Alumni Foundation, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance, and Mitchell’s Garage for all your work to make this tour possible.

Don’t forget to request a registration to the virtual roundtable on July 2!  Also, if your local community would still like to host a roundtable, contact us!