To help or hinder? HR policies and supporting individuals to use new workplace technologies

This study examines how workplace technologies interact with institutional contexts - particularly employee-centred Human Resource (HR) philosophies - to shape job quality and employee wellbeing. Drawing on survey data from 4,853 UK employees and using regression models, we explore whether HR philosophies can mitigate the adverse effects or amplify the benefits of digital ICTs, AI and machine learning, wearables and robotics.

Findings reveal that good HR environments often enhance the positive links between digital ICTs and flexibility, learning, idea use, and overall quality of life. In contrast, newer technologies often erode job security and may increase repetitive work, even in supportive HR contexts. Our results suggest that while employee-centred HR philosophies amplify benefits from established technologies, they do not yet reliably offset the potentially negative effects of emerging ones.

These findings underscore the importance of aligning the development of HR practices with technological development and provide empirical support for a capability-based, non-deterministic approach to understanding technology's role in the future of work.

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