What was human resource called before?

Human resources or HR as it is commonly called nowadays, is typically the department within a company with the responsibility and accountability for “finding, screening, recruiting and training job applicants, as well as administering employee-benefit programs.” The term HR was reportedly first used in a book called “The Distribution of Wealth” by John R. Commons, an innovative economist.

Since the book was published in 1893, it’s hard to know what term was used before. I am only guessing that because companies were not that sophisticated in the late 1800’s and they didn’t need all the employee-benefit programs and policies relating to workplace violence, sexual harassment and more, maybe HR was just called the employment department?