(FORTUNE Magazine) – They come after you with the creepy relentlessness of a horror-movie alien. If you're talent, the headhunters, dot-coms, and venture capitalists will do anything--anything--to dangle stock options and visions of absurd wealth before your sorry old-economy eyes. If you're a boss, it's a nightmare. Lose that fourth or fifth or sixth key employee, and you feel that these body snatchers have sucked the life from your company.

This is our look at corporate America's new topic A: how to win and keep top workers. Devin Leonard returns from the trenches with tales of the latest dot-com tactics and of FORTUNE 500 counterattacks. For a year, Eryn Brown has followed four MBAs; the trio of women have moved to their third startup, and the P&G exec has built himself a Cincinnati home. Then there's our survival guide: a Q&A with three of the country's top headhunters, and ten secrets of corporations that are great at retaining employees. Along the way, you'll meet some stars from the class of 2000. Lots of luck.

CONTENTS:

--THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE YOU AWAY 88 --LOVING P&G, LEAVING A DOT-COM 110 --HOW MANY HEADS CAN A HEADHUNTER HUNT? 118 --WINNING THE WAR TO KEEP TOP TALENT 132