The Human Capital Handbook for 2011 is available free online. There are some really interesting essays here  including one by an old friend, Raj Thamotheram, who works at Axa Investment Management. He and a colleague focus on the tyranny of – but need for – measurable data to be able to affect companies' treatment of their 'human capital' or people. So many executives say 'Ours is a people business' but treat their employees with no respect.

I was interested to read in the essay that: “In France, companies with more than 300 employees are required to publish metrics on workforce demographics, recruitment and training, absenteeism, staff turnover rates and working time flexibility, and this legislation has already had a significant positive impact on reporting.”

I've got an essay in this book too but of course I'd like everyone to buy as well The Economics of Enough. Here's a pile of them in Heffers in Cambridge, photographed by Kan Banks (@kiwanja).