Most of them are so-so, but the great ones are great and can find amazing candidates in a matter of days.
You are basically paying to hire someone whose only job is to keep in touch with great people.
The so-so recruiters go through LinkedIn, the best recruiter I ever worked with, when I told her the type of person I was looking for, had someone immediately in mind and got back to me the next day with a phone number.
That means when your recruiter will leave - he\she will take your employees along
Why the heck would I, as a recruiter, be so willing to shit in my own nest?
Treat your clients - former and present with respect and integrity and you'll continue to get work into the future.
Value money over good relationships and you'll soon be out of work.
The thing that bugs me is that this is self evident, yet people keep assuming recruiters would behave this badly.
If you are my client, then I will only find a job for your employees if the employee in question has already left the company, or if the client has explicitly said to me "can you find a job for this employee who has left us?"
Rules - there's rules for how to behave with integrity.
That was his point, as soon as your client is no longer your client you poach their engineers on behalf of your new clients. It might not work exactly like that with you, but I bet a lot of recruiters have no moral qualms about poaching from an ex-client.
In sectors with no such pressure, employees have to pee in bottles just to shave a little bit of productivity.
They leave because they want to leave. Because someplace else offered them a job that they think will be better, be it pay, work environment, commute, work/life balance, or some other factor(s).
Recruiters and head hunters just helped the ex-employee find out about a job that will, potentially, make them happier.
Yep, a little bit of money goes a long way in enabling an early retirement
Worked out well, hired and worked together for a couple years until the project ended.
Well worth the fee if you can get the right person!
And all the other companies they work for.