In today’s fast-paced environment, continuous renewal and innovation are crucial for an organization’s performance and survival. We argue that renewal capital (RC) is a key component of intellectual capital (IC) in fostering innovation. RC refers to a firm’s dynamic capability to update and renew its knowledge assets, making it a critical driver of innovation performance. Since it is the people within the organization who learn and innovate, human resource management (HRM) plays a significant role in empowering RC and fostering innovation. In this study, we develop a theoretical model to identify the HRM practices that are particularly essential for advancing RC as part of IC and, consequently, enhancing innovation performance. We test our theory using data collected from 180 Spanish companies, employing structural equation modeling based on partial least squares. Our empirical findings reveal that knowledge-based HRM practices—specifically, knowledge-based recruiting and selection, training and development, performance assessment, and compensation—are key antecedents of RC. Furthermore, RC plays a substantial role in promoting innovation. However, only training and development and, to a lesser extent performance assessment have a significant direct impact on innovation performance.