For the past couple of years, most workplace conversations about AI have centred on productivity, privacy, bias and responsible use.

Safe Work Australia’s new Best Practice Review of the model WHS laws makes another point very clear:

AI is already a work health and safety issue.

The review says existing WHS duties apply to the physical and psychosocial risks created by AI and other digital technologies.

And those risks aren’t theoretical.

The report specifically points to things like:

It also makes the point that risk doesn’t necessarily come from the technology itself.

It can come from how AI is designed, deployed and managed in practice.

That feels important for us in HR because AI doesn’t just change the tools people use.

It can change how work is allocated, how quickly people are expected to work, how performance is monitored, how much discretion people have and who is accountable for decisions.

So perhaps the question for us and our organisations shouldn’t only be:

“Can we use AI here?”

It should also be:

“What changes for the person doing the work if we do?”

Safe Work Australia is now recommending a national strategy on AI and other emerging digital technologies, including monitoring how WHS laws are being applied, identifying gaps, developing clearer guidance and researching the impact of AI on work design, workload, psychosocial risk and decision-making.

For me, I think we need to be thinking about…

Responsible AI is becoming a work design, management capability and employee consultation issue - not just an AI policy issue.

And we should be right in the middle of that conversation.

(These are recommendations from the review, not new national legal obligations. Existing WHS duties, however, already apply to risks arising from AI use in the workplace).

Recommendation 6 - psychosocial risk controls, pp. 37–38.
This recommends applying the hierarchy of controls to psychosocial risks and ultimately elevating the general risk-management process into the model WHS Act. For HR, this is important because it reinforces the move away from “support the individual” towards change the work or system creating the risk.

Recommendation 7 - WHS Information Statement, pp. 39–41.
The review proposes a WHS equivalent of the Fair Work Information Statement. Importantly, the proposed statement would explicitly tell workers, managers and supervisors that WHS laws apply to digital work systems, including AI.

Recommendation 8 - consultation, representation and participation, pp. 42–62.
This is very relevant to HR-led change. The review says consultation is often reduced to a tick-box exercise and identifies gaps in management capability around genuine worker consultation.

Recommendation 12 - NDAs, pp. 83–84.
The review recommends limiting non-disclosure agreements where they could prevent workers raising WHS concerns, making complaints to regulators or participating in investigations. This has obvious implications for HR, ER, investigations and settlement practices.

Recommendation 18 - modernising WHS regulation, pp. 112–114.
This is the broader “future of work” recommendation: modernise the regulations so they can properly deal with modern work, workplaces and emerging hazards.

Recommendation 19 - AI and emerging digital technologies, pp. 115–121. ⭐
This is the one every HR leader should read… It recommends an ongoing national AI/WHS strategy covering regulation, Codes of Practice, regulatory uncertainty, research and practical workplace solutions.

Recommendation 21 - harmful workplace behaviours, pp. 127–131.
This proposes clearer WHS treatment of violence, harassment and other harmful behaviours, including changes to the primary duty of care and greater emphasis on system-level prevention.

If you only read three, we would make it 6, 8 and 19.

Together they tell quite a powerful story for HR:

Manage psychosocial risk at the source + genuinely involve workers in change + treat AI as part of how work is designed and governed.

We spend so much time building Mak that every now and then it’s worth stopping and looking at what it’s actually doing.

Mak is now supporting HR across everything from awards, leave and overtime to restructures, performance issues, complaints, difficult conversations, documentation, policies and workforce planning.

And the numbers are getting a little ridiculous.

721,220 minutes of HR time saved.

Yep. We had to read that one twice too.

And in the past few months, the proportion of Mak interactions supporting compliance has increased from 64% to 77%.

That’s a MASSIVE deal for us because Mak was never meant to just make HR faster.

It was built to help people work through real HR issues with more clarity, consistency and confidence - especially when the answer isn’t obvious and the stakes are higher.

Now Mak is available for managers too (WITH LOTS OF GUARD RAILS) because HR doesn’t just happen in the HR department. (IYKYK😜).

When managers have a performance concern, a complaint lands, leave gets messy, or they need to have a conversation they’re not quite sure how to approach - Mak has their back (again with guard rails)

Giving managers support in those moments, while helping us create more consistency across the organisation, feels like a pretty important next step.

We’re incredibly proud of how far Mak has come - and even more excited about where it goes next.

We really appreciate all the support you are giving us - It takes A LOT for HR to build a product for HR (and take it to market) - Thank you ❤️

A 90-minute Humaneer Think Tank & Challenge Room with Derek Del Simone​

Talent challenges are becoming business challenges.

​Organisations are navigating changing skills needs, tighter labour markets, AI disruption, shifting workforce expectations and increasing pressure to make better decisions about capability.

​Yet many organisations are still structured to respond to talent issues after they appear.

​A role opens.

​A capability gap emerges.

​A hiring challenge becomes urgent.

​The question is:

​How do we redesign the way HR and Talent Acquisition work together so talent becomes a strategic capability, not simply a response function?

No presentations. Just 90 minutes of collaboration, challenging assumptions and developing practical ideas you can take back to work.

Thanks so much for reading this edition, and well done for making it to the end of the week!

If you have any feedback ideas or fancy a chat, feel free to reply to this email. We get back to everyone who emails us.

Have an AWESOME weekend when it arrives for you!

Careen 🚀

Co-Founder & CEO

Team humaneer

PS- don’t forget the FWC Gen AI disclosure came into effect on the 20th - check our free checklist below