Melbourne HR Technology Summit 2026

As technology reshapes the workplace, HR leaders face a critical choice: Will digital tools distance people, or bring them closer together? This session explores how to leverage HR tech to amplify authentic connection, build trust, and create a culture where human relationships remain at the centre of work.

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• How to design HR tech strategies that prioritise human connection over automation.
• Practical ways to use digital tools to enhance collaboration, wellbeing, and employee engagement.
• Why “human first” design leads to stronger trust, belonging, and retention.

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The digital workplace sits at the intersection of technology, HR, and culture. As AI, automation, and hybrid work reshape how we work, who takes ownership? This panel unpacks how IT and HR can co-lead to design a seamless, secure, and human-centred workplace.

• Why IT and HR must share ownership of digital workplace strategy
• Using technology to enhance, not erode, wellbeing and productivity
• The digital workplace is more than tools—it’s culture, governance, and leadership

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Participate in this interactive, guided, real-time simulation that demonstrates how data, technology, and human decision-making intersect in modern HR. This session invites the audience to apply insights, respond to evolving scenarios, and experience how technology supports strategic workforce outcomes.

Discover how predictive workforce analytics helped reduce high turnover by identifying risks early and guiding targeted retention strategies. Learn how data insights, engagement metrics, and manager action turned attrition challenges into measurable improvements in workforce stability.

• Use predictive models to spot early signs of disengagement and turnover risk.
• Turn analytics into practical, human-centred retention strategies.
• Strengthen workforce resilience through data-driven decision-making

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Managing a large and complex workforce today requires more than traditional HR systems. Organisations are rethinking how they simplify processes, elevate the employee experience, and align people strategy with business performance.

In this session, discover how Qantas are consolidating multiple platforms into unified cloud-based HR systems and using AI to transform recruitment, development, and workforce management.

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As AI transforms how we hire, develop, and engage people, the challenge is maintaining humanity in a data-driven world. This panel explores how HR leaders are integrating AI to enhance, not replace, empathy, trust, and connection at work.

Select a topic of discussion and engage in an interactive roundtable discussion with a group of your like-minded peers.

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AI isn’t coming, it’s already here, transforming how we work and lead. The question is no longer if we adopt AI, but who shapes its impact. If technology leads, efficiency wins. If finance leads, cost savings rule. But if People & Culture leads, we unlock transformation that makes humans more resourceful, not just more productive.
This session challenges HR leaders to set the principles for AI adoption ensuring technology serves people, enhances purpose, and elevates the human experience at work.

• Use AI to empower, not replace, human capability.
• Prioritise human value over automation speed.
• Lead AI transformation through people-first principles.

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From AI recruiting to digital wellbeing apps, HR leaders are flooded with tools promising efficiency, fairness, and insight. But are these technologies actually improving the employee experience? or creating new challenges like tool fatigue, bias, and data overload? This interactive think tank invites participants to weigh in on how organisations can strike the right balance between innovation and impact.

• Which area of HR technology currently delivers the most real business value in your organisation?
• How confident are you that your HR technology stack is fully adopted by employees and managers?
• What’s the biggest barrier to demonstrating ROI on HR technology investments?
• How do you see AI changing HR in the next 12 months?
• When it comes to the ‘Right to Switch Off’, what’s the biggest role technology should play?

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