The Fair Work Commission released its 2025–26 Annual Report this week, and one statistic caught our attention.

53,666 applications in just 12 months. That's a 22% increase on the previous year.

Among those applications were:

The Commission's President, Justice Adam Hatcher, has suggested that generative AI may be contributing to increasing application volumes, particularly by helping people prepare and lodge claims themselves.

That raises an interesting question 🤔

Employees now have access to personal AI tools that can help them understand workplace legislation, explore their rights, question decisions and prepare complaints.

That's a positive development. Everyone should have access to information about their workplace rights.

But what about the managers making those decisions?

We're asking managers to handle performance concerns, respond to complaints, navigate employment legislation and have difficult conversations. Often without immediate access to experienced HR guidance.

They may have attended training. They may have access to policies and procedures but when they're facing a complicated people issue, do they have the practical support they need, right when they need it?

And more importantly, did they have that support before the issue escalated?

Unfair dismissal cases consider both the reason for dismissal and whether a fair process was followed. General protections cases examine whether adverse action was taken for a prohibited reason.

Getting these decisions right requires more than knowing where to find a policy.

AI is changing how employees access workplace information. We need to make sure managers aren't being left behind.

Not so they can defend poor decisions, but so they can make better ones in the first place. Preventing an avoidable workplace dispute is better than managing one.

Read the report here

You've done the surveys. Identified the hazards. Collected the data.

Now what?

How do we turn all that information into meaningful action? And how do we help business leaders understand the real impact of psychosocial risk?

Our next Humaneer Think Tank is going to be a highly interactive session, and having read through the plans, I think it's going to be a fantastic conversation!

We're joined by Kim Lion from Prime Financial Group, who'll share the realities of tackling psychosocial risk inside an organisation, and Harrison Kennedy, CEO and Co-Founder of ReFresh, who'll help us explore how to turn data into better decisions.

We'll also tackle a tricky question: Can we put a dollar value on psychosocial risk without losing sight of the humans behind the numbers?

This isn't another webinar where you sit and listen. It's a chance to explore real challenges, share experiences and work through ideas together.

Bring your questions, your experience and your perspective. This is going to be an AWESOME session.

FREE EVENTS

We're making a few changes to the Humaneer Community (GO Andrea), and we want to make sure what we're sharing is actually useful to you.

Because let's face it, nobody needs another email, event invitation or notification about something they're not interested in!

Whether you're here to connect with other HR people, learn something new, find practical resources or simply have somewhere to turn when you need it, we want to make that easier.

We need a little help from you first…

We've put together a quick, two-minute questionnaire to get to know you a little better.

What you do, what you're interested in and what you'd like more of from Humaneer.

That way, we can share the conversations, events, resources and opportunities that are actually relevant to you.

And don't worry, there's no expectation to attend everything or keep up with it all. We're all busy enough!

Two minutes of your time will help us make Humaneer better for you.

Less noise. More of the good stuff.

We had a fascinating session with Rebecca Grainger exploring how our nervous system responds to stress and what that means for the way we think, make decisions and lead.

Rebecca didn't just explain the science. She took us through a guided breathwork exercise so we could experience the difference for ourselves.

A great reminder that managing stress isn't just another wellbeing initiative. It's a practical skill that can help us show up better, both at work and in life.

Catch up on the recording and give the breathwork exercise a try yourself.

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