The internet promised to make human resources more efficient, objective, and data-driven. But has it instead turned a human-centric discipline into an automated, impersonal system - introducing new ethical concerns, workplace surveillance, and privacy risks that nobody signed up for?
Welcome to Ruined By The Internet? - the show where we examine how technology is shaping modern life - whether we want it to or not.
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We're joined by Dr Justine Ferrer - Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the Deakin Business School - whose research sits at the intersection of people, technology, and the ethics of how organisations treat the humans inside them.
In this episode we investigate how automation and AI have reshaped HR practices, examine the tension between efficiency and the human touch in people management, explore the surveillance and data privacy risks that digital HR systems have introduced, and ask whether AI can ever be genuinely unbiased in hiring - or whether it simply encodes existing inequalities at scale.
(00:00) The internet's impact on human resources and people management
(02:57) The shift toward strategic HR, and what got left behind
(06:00) Balancing automation and the human touch in a digital workplace
(08:47) Workplace surveillance and the erosion of employee trust
(11:53) Data privacy and security challenges in modern HR systems
(14:48) How small businesses are navigating HR technology without the resources
(17:57) AI, algorithmic bias, and the future of hiring
(20:55) The skills HR professionals need to survive the automation wave
(23:43) Building an ethical framework for AI in human resources
(26:50) The future of human resources in a technology-driven world
Key takeaways:
• Strategic Shift vs. Wellbeing: Historically focused on employee welfare, modern HR has transformed into a strategic corporate function that increasingly leverages technology to drive efficiency over traditional human-centric care.
• Automation as Liberation or Reductionism: While systems can automate menial administrative tasks to free up staff for more meaningful work, the total automation of processes risks reducing unique, complex human beings to mere commodity data points.
• Care vs. Coercion: While marketed under the guise of employee care and health monitoring, invasive employer surveillance tech solutions often manifest as a coercive cultural force that breeds deep worker cynicism and distrust.
• Demands of the Analytical Skill Set: Rather than completely replacing the workforce, the rise of autonomous programs and generative AI demands a massive upskilling in human data interpretation. HR professionals must possess critical thinking, analytical skills, and prompt engineering expertise to actively audit algorithms for data errors and inherent biases.
If this episode got you thinking, check out:
Brand Trust: The Era of Algorithmic Enshittification?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/YjBkYzg1OTktMWQ5OC00N2JmLWEwNjMtNWIwMDkxZmQ2N2I1
Reputation Management: A New World of Digital Life Sentences?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/NjRlNGY5YjEtNmQ5YS00NGY1LTg0Y2QtNTAwNTcwNDI3Nzg5
The Taxi Industry: A Data-driven Destruction of Dignified Work?
https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/ZjFmM2RlN2EtZTNjMC00MTVmLTg3YzgtNTk5Y2NjMWNkNzMy
Guest links - Dr Justine Ferrer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/justineferrer
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