We keep treating management capability like an L&D issue.

We don’t think it is anymore. It’s a business performance issue.

New Australian data makes that increasingly difficult to ignore.

PwC’s 2026 workforce research found that 38% of managers say their workload has increased substantially - more than senior executives or non-managers. Managers were also the most likely group to say meetings and interruptions were getting in the way of productivity, and the most likely to be considering leaving their organisation. 

At the same time, Gartner’s latest Australian talent data shows manager quality is now the number one reason employees say they would leave a job. Lack of respect, poor work-life balance and people management follow closely behind.

And then there’s psychosocial risk.

AHRI research found only 28% of employers are investing in leadership and management capability specifically to improve psychosocial health, despite management practices sitting behind many of the hazards organisations are now being asked to control.

That matters because poor management capability rarely stays contained within the manager.

It shows up somewhere else. In performance issues that aren’t addressed early. In conflict that is allowed to fester. In employees who don’t feel supported. In inconsistent decisions. In rising HR involvement. In psychosocial risk.

And eventually, in turnover and business performance.

The traditional response has been to send managers on training (training still matters) but a two-hour workshop doesn’t help much when a manager is sitting at their desk trying to work out what to do about a complaint, a performance issue or a difficult conversation they have already put off for three weeks.

That is the part we think organisations need to rethink. Managers need knowledge, yes.

But they also need capacity, support and help in the moment.

They need somewhere to test their thinking. They need clarity about what to do next. They need confidence to act earlier and they need to know when something has moved beyond their remit and needs to be escalated.

The question may no longer be:

“How do we train managers better?”

It may be:

“How do we design organisations that help managers be good at managing?”

That is a very different challenge. We are obsessed with this challenge, so much so, we built Mak to help solve it. 

THINK TANK - Wednesday 4th November

If we ask employees to tell us where work is causing harm, what responsibility do we have to actually do something about it?

That's what we're getting into at our next Humaneer Think Tank: Psychosocial Risk: You've Got the Data. Now What?

We are delighted to be joined by Kim Lion from Prime Financial Group and Harrison Kennedy, CEO and Co-Founder of ReFresh.

Kim will bring the perspective of an organisation doing the work. What they were trying to solve, what they've discovered, what's changed and what they're still figuring out.

Harrison will help us explore how we can use that information to make better decisions and have stronger conversations with business leaders.

We'll also tackle the commercial question.

Can we put a dollar value on psychosocial risk to help leaders understand its impact, without reducing a very human issue to a financial calculation?

This won't be a product pitch and it won't be another webinar full of slides.

It's a conversation about what happens when we stop simply collecting information and start using it to make work better.

Bring your questions. Bring your experience. Bring your perspective.

That's what Humaneer Think Tanks are all about.

AI in HR training - Sydney/Melbourne

One of the things we hear again and again in the Humaneer community is that people don’t need more noise about AI.

They need space to make sense of what’s changing, talk honestly about what it means for HR, and work through what good actually looks like in practice.

That’s exactly what our Future-Ready HR workshop is designed to do.

We’re bringing it to Sydney and Melbourne, and it’s a chance to step away from the day-to-day, spend time with other HR and People leaders, and explore some of the bigger questions together:

It’s not a “sit quietly and listen to a presentation” kind of session.

It’s practical, discussion-led and designed to help you leave with more clarity, confidence and ideas you can actually use.

And because this is very much part of what we’re building with the Humaneer community, Humaneer members receive 20% off tickets.

If you’re in Sydney or Melbourne and this is a conversation you want to be part of, we’d love to have you there (you can read and download course outline by clicking the save your seat button)

Discount code - HUMANEERHIAI20OFF

Best bit… the discount stacks on top of the early bird while there is still early bird available - win win!

In this Humaneer Think Tank, Dr John Chan, Managing Director of Infinite Potential takes us through the research on workplace burnout and what  organisations can do differently (you can find our other Think tanks on this link too 👇)

We read about a recent Federal Court case involving Atlassian this week.

An employee relied on an AI-generated meeting summary as evidence that certain workplace accommodations had been agreed but the Court highlighted an important distinction: a summary isn't the same as a transcript, and it doesn't necessarily prove what was agreed.

We thought a lot about the use of notetakers before we built Mak's notetaker specifically for HR.

When you're documenting a performance conversation, grievance, investigation or return-to-work discussion, the details matter. There's a big difference between "we'll consider that" and "we've agreed to that".

While AI note-takers can save us enormous amounts of time, we still need to be confident the record is accurate.

That's why with Mak's notetaker, you can review and edit your notes, correct speaker labels and roles, and then generate factual summaries, detailed file notes, letters and other HR documents directly from the conversation.

We've had some really encouraging feedback from HR professionals who prefer using Mak over general meeting tools because it's built for their work, with privacy and security front of mind.

For us, the lesson from this case isn't to stop using AI for meeting notes.

It's to make sure we're using tools that help us create accurate records, not just polished summaries.

In HR, what was actually said matters.

Case: Kavanagh v Atlassian Pty Ltd [2026] FCA 1509

Curious how Mak's HR notetaker works? Jump into our diary and take a look 👇

Thanks so much for reading this edition, its nearly the weekend - we made it!

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