This is one in a series of 11 books that focuses on the specific application of statistics using Excel in various fields of business, health science, and social science. If they are all of the same caliber as this work, the entire series will be well worth purchasing and being on your required reference list.

The text is written for the professional who does not need a background in mathematics or information technology (IT). It is a very readable text and the examples are exactly what present-day human resources (HR) managers would be interested in. The many detailed explanations of the Excel properties needed add to the book’s excellence. The screen shots are well done.

A value-added feature of the book is its treatment of the basic topics of statistics needed to complete a solution to the examples. The reader is not expected to have a companion text on statistics to know what statistics are being used.

Chapters 1 and 2 deal with fundamental principles of statistics and Excel. The interested reader should have some familiarity with both subjects, but again, the authors do a very good job of explaining both. The remainder of the text deals with statistical topics and their execution by Excel methods; in all cases, examples that should be of interest to HR professionals are used. The third chapter covers confidence intervals, followed by two chapters covering one sample and two sample tests. Chapters 6 and 7 present and discuss principles of simple and multiple correlation and regression. The text concludes with a chapter on one-way analysis of variance. References and answers to selected assigned problems are included.

I have been reluctant to recommend books by this publisher to any group not adequately prepared in the areas covered by the text. However, in this case, the authors have done such an excellent job of writing for the talented amateur, the book is suitable for a wide audience interested in the use of Excel in human resources.