Best Shutdown and Turnaround Staffing Agencies (2026): How to Choose a Staffing Partner

The best staffing agencies for industrial shutdowns and turnarounds in 2026 are Cruitfly for scaffold, insulation and asbestos abatement crews from one roster, Tradesmen International for a large network of heavy-industrial craftworkers, Per Sé Group for outage supervisors and technical roles, Trillium Construction Services for traveling "road warrior" craft crews, KODIAK Construction Workforce Solutions for project-managed outage staffing, and PeopleReady for energy and industrial labor at plants and refineries.

Cruitfly publishes this guide; we list ourselves first on the trades we staff and describe every other agency from its own website.

Every agency below was checked against its own website on 27 October 2026. Where a site does not say, we write "not stated".

How did we choose these shutdown and turnaround staffing agencies?

We kept agencies whose own websites describe staffing for plant shutdowns, turnarounds or outages. We then compared what a plant or contractor needs to know before the outage window opens:

• Trades and roles. Which crafts and supervisory roles does the agency name for outage work?
• Travel crews. Does it say it can send traveling workers to a remote plant?
• Employment model. Does the site say the workers are the agency's own employees, and who carries payroll and workers' compensation?
• Safety. Does it publish its safety training or safety record?

Quick comparison: shutdown and turnaround staffing agencies

The best shutdown and turnaround staffing agencies, compared

1. Cruitfly

Cruitfly is a construction and environmental staffing agency with hubs in Indianapolis and Charlotte that places crews on its own payroll in nearly all of the lower 48 states. For outages it covers the three trades that set the critical path at the start and end of a shutdown: scaffold, insulation and asbestos abatement.

• Trades. Scaffold carpenters and helpers, insulators, asbestos and environmental abatement workers, demolition crews and general labor.
• Employment model. Every worker is a W2 Cruitfly employee, and Cruitfly carries workers' compensation on every worker it places, in every state it operates in. See the compliance page.
• Safety record. Cruitfly's Experience Modification Rate (EMR) is .75, below the 1.0 industry average, and it is a member of the Scaffold and Access Industry Association (SAIA) and the Environmental Information Association (EIA).
• Travel. Accommodations for traveling crews are coordinated by Cruitfly's in-house team.
• Speed. Typical fill time is 48 to 72 hours, with a replacement typically on site within 12 to 24 hours.

Outage proof points: 30 scaffold carpenters, with scaffold helpers, for a partial power plant shutdown in Wyoming, building scaffold inside enclosures with challenging angles and tight spaces, and a mechanical insulation crew in the Northeast that scaled from three to six in two weeks on schedule.

Best for: plants and contractors who want scaffold, insulation and abatement from one roster, so a gap in one trade does not stall the other two.

2. Tradesmen International

Tradesmen International is a national skilled-trades staffing company that says it has nearly 200 staffing offices and a pool of craftworkers with shutdown experience.

• Trades. Millwrights, pipefitters, boilermakers, pipe and structural welders, I&E technicians, instrument fitters, turbine mechanics, industrial insulators, and hole and fire watchers.
• Employment model. Its site says each craftworker is a permanent Tradesmen employee, so Tradesmen covers workers' compensation, benefits and other payroll costs.
• Planning. It offers to reserve workers ahead of a planned shutdown and provides labor productivity consulting for the execution phase.

Best for: large outages that need many mechanical and electrical crafts from one national network.

Cruitfly vs. Tradesmen International, compared in full.

3. Per Sé Group

Per Sé Group staffs turnaround, shutdown and outage roles in the power, oil and gas, renewable energy and industrial sectors. It says it has more than 30 years of experience and a network of more than 400,000 candidates in the US and Canada.

• Roles. Outage coordinators, heat exchanger specialists, commissioning engineers, coating inspectors, construction managers, cost estimators and electrical planners, as well as tradespeople.
• Ways to hire. Contract, contract-to-hire, direct hire and turnkey contracted services.
• Employment model. Whether workers are W2 employees is not stated on the page reviewed.

Best for: outages that need supervisors, planners and technical specialists as much as craft labor.

4. Trillium Construction Services

Trillium Construction Services, part of Trillium Staffing, says it provides a traveling "road warrior" workforce for plant outages, turnarounds, industrial maintenance and capital projects nationwide.

• Trades. Skilled trades from apprentice to journeyman level, including field service electricians and confined space entry laborers, with workers holding NCCER certification, TWIC cards, aerial lift cards or OSHA training.
• Safety. A full-time safety management team that offers on-site training, including OSHA 10-hour courses.
• Employment model. Its site says it employs its road warriors; whether they are W2 employees is not stated.

Best for: remote plants where the local market cannot supply enough craft workers.

5. KODIAK Construction Workforce Solutions

KODIAK Construction Workforce Solutions says it staffs shutdowns, outages and turnarounds from pre-shutdown planning through post-project ramp-up, with experience in petrochemical, power generation and manufacturing.

• Trades and roles. Skilled trade professionals in industrial maintenance and repair, plus direct hire candidates.
• Project support. Dedicated project managers for large industrial shutdowns and a nationwide network for planned or emergency outages.
• Safety. It says all KODIAK employees are offered OSHA-10 and other appropriate training.
• Employment model. Whether workers are W2 employees is not stated on the page reviewed.

Best for: contractors who want a project manager on the agency side for the whole outage.

6. PeopleReady

PeopleReady, a TrueBlue company, staffs capital construction and plant shutdown and turnaround work for the power generation, refinery and petrochemical, and manufacturing industries.

• Trades. Ironworkers and steelworkers, pipe installers and fabricators, and turbine maintenance workers.
• Experience. It says it has logged more than 7 million hours of work on heavy industrial job sites and has provided traveling tradespeople for two decades.
• Employment model. Whether workers are W2 employees is not stated on the page reviewed.

Best for: plants that want to order energy and industrial labor through an app and a national branch network.

Cruitfly vs. PeopleReady, compared in full.

How do you choose a staffing agency for a shutdown or turnaround?

Choose the agency that can clear its workers through your gate before the outage starts. Recruiting takes days; credentialing takes weeks. Use these checks on any agency, Cruitfly included:

• Credentials before headcount. Ask which workers already hold the TWIC card, plant orientation, fit test and state asbestos license your site needs. TSA advises enrolling for a TWIC card at least 60 days before it is needed.
• Trades in sequence. Scaffold goes up first and comes down last, and insulation is removed early and reinstalled late. Cruitfly's shutdown and turnaround staffing guide explains the order and the countdown.
• Safety record. Ask for the agency's Experience Modification Rate (EMR) and safety program; process safety rules require plants to evaluate a contract employer's safety performance before selecting it.
• W2 or 1099. Ask whether workers are the agency's own W2 employees and ask for a certificate of insurance showing workers' compensation. W2 vs. 1099 construction labor explains who carries the injury risk.
• Replacements and travel. Ask how fast a worker who drops off the roster is replaced, and who books lodging for traveling crews.

Conclusion

There is no single best staffing agency for shutdowns and turnarounds, only the best fit for the trades and roles on your outage. Cruitfly covers scaffold, insulation and abatement from one roster; Tradesmen International and PeopleReady bring large craft networks; Per Sé Group supplies supervisors and technical specialists; Trillium sends traveling craft crews; KODIAK adds an agency-side project manager. Whichever you call, clear the credentials first and book for the weeks, not the days.

Planning an outage? Request a crew from Cruitfly or call 317-426-7703.

Key Takeaways

• Credentialing sets the lead time. TWIC, plant orientation and state asbestos licenses take weeks; finding workers takes days.
• Plan scaffold, insulation and abatement together. They work at both ends of the outage and a gap in one stalls the others.
• Ask for the EMR. Plants are expected to evaluate a contract employer's safety performance before selecting it.
• Ask about W2 status directly. Several agency websites do not state it, and it decides who carries the injury risk.
• Agree the replacement plan before mobilization. Name a contact at the agency for the length of the outage.

Key Terms

• Shutdown or turnaround: A planned stop of a plant or unit so maintenance, inspection and repair work can be done in a fixed window.
• Outage: The period a power plant or unit is offline for maintenance or repair.
• TWIC card: The Transportation Worker Identification Credential, required for unescorted access to secure areas of maritime-regulated facilities.
• Experience Modification Rate (EMR): A workers' compensation rating that compares a company's injury history with its industry; below 1.0 is better than average.
• Road warrior: A traveling craft worker who moves from project to project rather than working near home.

FAQ