Adapted from a real OPS Staffing article originally posted by Mitchell Riley (Sep 2026).
Look past a generic construction resume. When you hire for a restoration company, the people who last are the ones who have already run water, fire, mold, or storm work — and can prove IICRC status, scoping or Xactimate ability, and how they behave on a live loss. Soft skills matter. They do not replace loss-type experience.
A restoration hire is not a generic field hire with a different logo. The phone rings, the clock starts, and the file only works if the person walking in already knows mitigation, reconstruction, or the leadership seat you are filling. Screen for four things, in this order:
OPS Staffing recruits these seats nationwide for insurance restoration firms — estimators, project managers, production and mitigation managers, sales, and leadership. See restoration recruiting if you want the search run for you.
| Role | Must-have | Nice-to-have |
|---|---|---|
| Mitigation / production | Water or fire jobs they can walk you through; safety; on-call honesty | IICRC WRT/ASD or FSRT; crew lead time |
| Estimator / project director | Scoping discipline; Xactimate or your estimating tool; file documentation | Large-loss; carrier relationships |
| Project manager | Reconstruction or mitigation PM files; trade coordination; customer updates | Multi-crew; contents; commercial |
| Sales / business development | Restoration or insurance-adjacent book of work; follow-through | Adjuster network; Floodlight-style sales search |
| Location or regional leadership | P&L or branch results they can explain without a script | Multi-site; M&A or startup stand-up |
If a candidate cannot name loss types, file volume, or the software they used last year, they are not close enough. They are a different hire.
Ask for the credential and the last time they used it. IICRC on a resume from 2014 with no recent water or fire work is a flag, not a pass. For estimators and PMs, sit them in front of a sample file — even a redacted one — and watch how they talk about scope, dry logs, or change orders.
Then ask one time-pressure question: Walk me through a job that went sideways in the first 48 hours. You want sequence, who they called, and what they protected. You do not want a speech about being a people person.
Soft-skill fails that show up on restoration jobs: they freeze when the homeowner is angry, they hide a miss from the PM, or they cannot work a weekend when the weather does not care about their calendar. Those are hire-killers. Works well with others is not a screen.
Be honest in the posting. If the seat is on-call, say so. Pay transparency and a clear file-volume picture attract people who will still be there after week two. That is the same point as our piece on selling the opportunity instead of posting a chore list.
Retraining works for some technician seats if you have time and a trainer. For estimator, PM, and sales seats, hire restoration-specific experience. The learning curve on carriers, Xactimate, and live losses is the job.
Once the role is scoped, outreach should start in days, not after another month of internal debate. On our recruiting process page we describe a 60-120 day placement guarantee and a search that is built to move while your crew stays on jobs.
Yes. That is the work. Talk to a recruiter or call (888) 482-6019. Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm CST.
Updated September 2026 by the OPS Staffing recruiting team. Employee-owned. Based in Pasadena, TX. Placing restoration and construction talent nationwide since December 2015.