Longmont leads area in number of employees who live near work

Managing EditorLONGMONT — Some say the next best thing to working at home is working in the city where you live, but more people in Boulder and Broomfield counties commute to work than don’t, according to a recent study.

Employers across the board say commuting by car can cut into productivity, citing increased absenteeism and leaving work early to beat rush hour.

However, the city that has the most residents working where they live is Longmont. About 45 percent of Longmont’s private business workforce lives in that city. That’s a high number compared with the 18 percent of residents of Broomfield that work there, and the16 percent of Boulder’s workforce that lives in the city by the Flatirons, according to the 2002 Boulder County Labor Migration Profile, produced by the Boulder Regional Business Partnership.

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The survey, coordinated by Wendi Nafziger, vice president of the Longmont Area Economic Council, queried 27,000 workers in Boulder and Broomfield counties, of whom 22,000 are employed by private businesses.

Some large companies in Longmont say there is a direct correlation between productivity and how far an employee has to travel to work.

Kevin Saxton, general manager for ConAgra Food Inc., a food-processing plant in Longmont, said absenteeism nearly doubles when employees live beyond a 30-mile radius, according to records kept by the company. ?Some of that is related to weather, and some is related to mechanical breakdowns depending on the condition of vehicles used,? he said. Also on bad weather days during the winter, workers opt to leave early to avoid icy roads.

About 40 percent of ConAgra’s 1,200 workers live in Longmont. While having workers live nearby benefits the company, the community benefits as well. Saxton said ConAgra employees who live in Longmont generate annually about $60 million in purchases of goods and services in Longmont, suggesting that employees who live where they work add to a city’s tax revenue. ?That’s a sizeable contribution,? he said.

Chuck Herring, director of marketing and communications at DigitalGlobe Inc. in Longmont, said of the company’s 200 employees, about 80 live in Longmont. ?I think employees are generally less stressed out if they work close to where they live,? Herring said.

Herring said more DigitalGlobe employees are moving to Longmont after the company successfully launched a satellite earlier this year and now has a saleable product. DigitalGlobe sells high-resolution satellite images of the Earth’s surface.

?Since we are a 24/7 operation, it’s easier for employees to be called in to work in case something is wrong,? said Herring, who recently moved to Longmont, eliminating a daily commute from Westminster, west of Denver. ?Longmont is growing, and it’s a nice place to live,? he said.

Seagate Technology Inc., which engineers and manufactures computer disk drive prototypes, helps employees live near their work.

Seagate spokeswoman Cindy LaRocque said the company helps pay relocation costs for employees who move more than 50 miles to be nearer work. The company also provides a relocation service for new hires, which includes hooking up with Realtors as well as offering aid in finding quality affordable housing.

Of Seagate’s 1,096 employees, 492 have Longmont addresses, and about 700 live in surrounding communities within about a 15-minute drive of the plant at 389 Disc Drive. ?The less time workers are commuting, the less stressed they are,? LaRocque said. ?They’ll have more leisure time to spend with their families, and they’ll have more time to be involved in the community,? she said.Contact Doug Storum at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail dstorum@bcbr.com.