ORMSCan Math help improve HR mandates in an organization? This was a question I posed to Atanu Basu while I was interviewing him for a blog post I was doing on Predictive Analytics for HR. Atanu works for this firm called DataInfoCom who have been working on solving a bunch of business problems for companies like Dell and Microsoft. Since then I have been talking to him about potential opportunities for building Predictive HR. Recently the Operations Research and Management Sciences Today magazine in their October 2010 issue printed the article Atanu and I co-authored on possible opportunities for using Predictive Analytics for four major areas of HR. Here is the article that appeared in the ORMS Today magazine.Listen randomly to ten interviews of Global Fortune 500 CEO’s and you will hear them mention “it is all about the people” in the company. HR professionals have the important mandate of making a business successful by acquiring, engaging, and developing talent. While some corporations are legendary for their people practices – GE and PepsiCo come to mind – most companies still go about the business of talent acquisition, retention, and development the same way they did in the past. While there has been intent, in the absence of the appropriate tools, HR and business leaders have found it challenging to deliver on the HR agenda. Predictive Analytics and related technologies have the ability to transform HR as we know it. We started exploring this area over a year ago.Let’s look at the HR mandates and explore how predictive decisions can deliver business value.