GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls Development Authority has a new website to help businesses recruit employees.
From housing to childcare options, LiveInGreatFalls.com is a one-stop shop for probably just about everything you'd want to know about the city. The site includes information about Great Falls in categories including Work, Play, Innovate, Live, and Learn. The categories include information about housing, jobs, recreation, education, events, and social life.
"I think it's helpful for us,” said Cara Carlson, an architect at LPW Architecture, which is one of several companies using the website as a marketing tool, and includes a link to it on its own website.
"We're basically recruiting talent either from out of state or from people who have gone to school in Bozeman,” Carlson said. "I think it's hard because we don't really have the name recognition of Bozeman, Missoula, or Whitefish. So either people have a stigma about Great Falls and they don't think it's as nice as those other places, or they don't really know about what's available here and what it has to offer. So I think the website helps."
The Great Falls Development Authority created the website as a result of demand from businesses. GFDA Talent Attraction Director Soren Chargois said it's part of a larger marketing effort.
She explained, "It's a tool that we want not only HR professionals and recruiters to use in attracting talent, but we want parents, grandparents, friends, family to be sending this to their relatives and friends who live outside of our city."
It's a very proactive approach, she said.
"The other places we see this are Dallas, Fargo, lots of cities on the East Coast. So we're being really aggressive and we really want to see Great Falls grow,” said Chargois.
The GFDA plans to have an expanded version of the website available in early 2021 and will continue to expand it as necessary.
