Battle for the best

Employers face a tougher challenge than ever when recruiting top talent. If the fall of the dot-coms and the softening of the economy have thrown more people into the labor pool, companies continue to report a mismatch between who's available and who's desired. At the same time, new recruitinent tools on the Internet pose a double threat: Top-tier candidates can comparison shop for the best salary and benefits deals, and smaller employers can raise their profiles among technical talent that would have overlooked all but the biggest organizations a decade ago. It's all part of a new world in which employers must innovate to land the people they want.