The Resources and Engineering Skills Alliance (Resa) has warned that Australian resources companies that failed to deal with falling productivity figures would be faced with stiffer competition.

“The number of companies that are becoming proactive and getting better responses from their workforce are those that are going to be more profitable,” Resa CEO Phil de Courcey said last week.

He noted that companies that lagged behind in the productivity race would ultimately fall prey to the competition.

Despite mining production increasing over the last decade, productivity had actually decreased by 50% over the last ten years, De Courcey said, quoting figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

“The confusing thing is that mining production is high and wage rates are high, and there is a figure from the Minerals Council of Australia that suggests mining employees are producing some A$600 000 per employee, per year. “This makes mining the most productive of all industries. But this is confused with productivity,” De Courcey said.

He noted that productivity was influenced by a number of factors, including capital intensity and labour productivity.

De Courcey has called on the mining sector to investigate avenues that would assist in increasing productivity rates, including adopt- ing practices that would avoid waste and ensure that companies made the most of their resources.

He noted that specific attention should be paid to wisely using human resources to increase all levels of production at an operation.

“My belief is that all the factors associated with multifactor productivity, can be impacted by your human capital. Even small impacts, if they are multiplied or added together, can have an impressive impact on the output part of an equation,” he said.

De Courcey’s comments echoed those made by diversified giant BHP Billiton’s chairperson Jac Nasser last week, who also urged industry to become more efficient and flexible.

“Productivity is all encompassing. Some people think of it as only about fewer people and less equipment but, in fact, it is more broad-based than that. “Productivity is also about getting more from what we put into our business and wasting less, to increase our competitiveness and attractiveness to global capital – and to protect the environment. “It is also about the people who work in our industry – offering safe, performance-driven, skilled and satisfying jobs,” Nasser said.

He noted that technology and innovation could also be used to further drive productivity improvements.