Walking into the Alberta Legislature building can be a bit intimidating. The rich sandstone and lush marble possess a grandeur you won’t find a couple blocks up the street in Edmonton’s downtown.
When you walk into Doug Griffiths’ office however, the author, speaker, MLA for Battle River-Wainwright and the Parliamentary Assistant for Finance and Enterprise is casual and disarmingly dressed in jeans.
Griffiths is passionate about productivity and the effect it has on Alberta’s economy. In his position as a lieutenant to Finance Minister Ted Morton, he’s been in charge of implementing the Competitiveness Act which includes developing strategies to help Alberta business become even more nimble on the world stage. It means promoting and emphasizing innovation, productivity and the adoption of technology.
Productivity Alberta sat down with Doug Griffiths to get his take on productivity issues in Alberta.
PA: Why is productivity important for the future of Alberta’s economy? DG: When you look at all the other factors; we have an incredibly competitive tax regime, we have incredibly well-developed infrastructure, we have excellent access to international markets. We score very well, we’re in the green on most everything but we really fall behind on productivity. So when we’re talking about the overall effectiveness of Alberta globally, we have to improve our productivity if we’re going to compete.
PA: Where does Productivity Alberta fit in with that goal? DG: I think it’s one of the greatest tools we have in the province that we haven’t told anybody about. It’s been very exciting to learn about Productivity Alberta.”
PA: Why is that? DG: Too many people think that when you talk about productivity that you work more overtime. That’s not increasing productivity, that’s increasing production. Productivity is how much work you get done per hour, which means you need to streamline your environment and your systems and maximize every bit of work you get out of your employees.
Productivity is the best way to produce more goods and services, especially when we have a limited labour force. Every factor that makes Alberta what it is points to “improve productivity and our whole system will improve.” Our wages will go up, our production will go up.
It all comes down to productivity. I get excited about this, so to have an organization like Productivity Alberta that provides a phenomenal service is something we need to talk about and build up even more.
We’ve had a decade of success but in the last couple of years with the global economic downturn everyone is looking inward and saying “what do I need to do to improve my profitability?”
It’s productivity. We’ve got this incredible resource that’s right there and it’s practically free for them to access.
PA: What kind of personal experience do you have with productivity? DG: I remember for three generations of farmers, we alwayss stacked the hay bales along a row of trees because it protected them from the wind. It was way on the other side of the yard from where we fed the cattle. It was almost half a mile away so it would take all day to feed the cattle.
One year we talked about it and I said “Why don’t we stack them over here, behind the shed” it would still be sheltered from the wind and it would be right by where we fed the cattle. I bet we shaved off two hours a day just from the trips back and forth across the yard.
That’s what productivity is about. It can be from that employee who constantly has to walk over to the other side of the shop to grab a pallet and bring it back. If the pallets are right there they don’t have to make the trip and they can get more work done in the same amount of time.
I’ve done tours of lumber and fiber mills since I got elected. Those manufacturers are always very proud of showing how they’ve streamlined their businesses. The purpose of the streamlining is to cut costs and remove waste but it always ends up increasing productivity.
_If you’re interested in educating yourself further on how to improve your company’s productivity, whether you’re in farming, construction, manufacturing or anything else, we recommend you attend one of the many events we publicize on our website. Click here for the events calendar. _
