Human resources, commonly shortened to HR, is the business function responsible for managing people - recruiting them, onboarding them, paying and developing them, handling workplace relations, and managing their eventual exit. It sits alongside payroll as a related but distinct discipline.
What it means
Where payroll calculates and pays what an employee is owed, HR governs the broader employment relationship: contracts, policies, performance, discipline and statutory compliance such as employment equity and skills development. The two functions share data - an employee's HR record (start date, position, employment type) feeds the payroll calculation.
Where it fits in
HR is the umbrella over the rest of this category - the employee lifecycle, structure and roles, SA statutory HR obligations, workplace relations, and reward and workforce planning all sit underneath it. Every one of those areas eventually touches payroll, since pay is the output most of them are organised around.
Key rules
- HR = human resources, the umbrella function over the employment relationship.
- Distinct from payroll, but supplies the data payroll calculations depend on.
- Covers the full employee lifecycle from hire to exit.
- Carries South Africa's statutory HR obligations (equity, skills development, labour relations).
