HireAligned vs Work With Your Handz: which trades recruiter fits your shop?
Both recruit HVAC, plumbing and electrical talent, from techs to leadership. Work With Your Handz adds contract staffing and RPO for multi-location and PE-backed operators. HireAligned is built for owner-run shops. Here's how to tell which you need.
By Jacob Crockett · CEO, HireAligned ·
The short answer
Work With Your Handz and HireAligned both recruit HVAC, plumbing and electrical people, from techs up to leadership. Work With Your Handz is set up for bigger operators: multi-location companies, PE-backed platforms, embedded RPO teams and contract staffing. HireAligned is set up for owner-run shops that need permanent hires made fast, whether that's a service tech or a general manager. If you run one or two locations and the owner still signs off on every hire, start with us. If you're consolidating brands or need contract crews, Work With Your Handz is built for that.
Everything we say about Work With Your Handz comes from workwithyourhandz.com and its EGIA marketplace listing, checked on October 31, 2026. If something there has changed, their site wins.
What Work With Your Handz does well
- More ways to engage. Their site lists direct hire, temp-to-perm, contract staffing, RPO and talent advisory. Their FAQ adds retained executive search. If you need seasonal labor or a full embedded recruiting team, they offer it.
- Built for scale. They describe their RPO as "built for multi-location operators and PE-backed platforms," and their case studies include a 6-company portfolio (15 hires) and Del-Air (28 hires across HVAC, plumbing, electrical and support roles).
- Leadership across portfolios. One case study centers on leadership hiring across several portfolio brands at once.
- EGIA rebate. EGIA members get 4% back on their recruiting services through Contractor University.
- Recognition. They were named to the 2026 Inc. 5000.
Where HireAligned is different
- Built for owner-run shops. Most of our customers do $1M to $50M a year. We hire service techs, installers, lead plumbers, comfort advisors, CSRs, dispatchers, and leadership roles like service managers and GMs. The owner does the final interview.
- Speed on the first contact. Techs apply at night from their phone. We text every applicant back within ten minutes, nights and weekends included, and ask the screening questions right there. By morning, the people worth meeting are on your calendar.
- Fast fills for single roles. Eagle Pipe hired a lead plumber through us in 4 days, after four months of trying and $20k paid to another recruiting firm. AirWorks hired two experienced HVAC comfort advisors in 3 weeks.
- You can run it yourself later. On our done-with-you plan, your own office runs hiring on the same system. A lot of shops start done-for-you to fill the open seats, then bring it in-house.
Side by side
| Work With Your Handz | HireAligned | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Mid-to-large service businesses, multi-location and PE-backed operators | Owner-run HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops, $1M to $50M |
| Engagements | Direct hire, temp-to-perm, contract, RPO, retained exec search, talent advisory | Done-for-you recruiting (including leadership searches), or done-with-you software |
| Roles | Techs, apprentices, master license holders, sales, support, management, executives | Techs, installers, comfort advisors, CSRs, dispatchers, managers, leadership |
| Contract / seasonal labor | Yes | No |
| Executive search | Yes | Yes |
| RPO (embedded recruiting team) | Yes | No |
| First contact with applicants | Not described on their site | Text back within ten minutes, nights and weekends |
| Published time to fill | Under 30 days in most case studies, ~45 days for leadership | 1 to 4 weeks typical, 4 days for Eagle Pipe's lead plumber |
| Published pricing | No, varies by engagement | No, quoted on a call |
| Run it in-house later | Not described | Yes, done-with-you |
| EGIA member rebate | 4% | No |
How to choose
Ask what kind of hire is keeping you up at night.
If it's a contract crew for summer, or an embedded recruiting team across five brands you just bought, Work With Your Handz is built for that work. If it's the service tech you needed last month, or the GM you need before you can step back, and every applicant goes cold because nobody calls back until the next afternoon, that's the problem HireAligned was built to fix.
For more on the choice, see in-house recruiter vs recruiting partner, recruiter vs staffing agency vs in-house, and how much a recruiter costs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Work With Your Handz or HireAligned better for a single-location HVAC company with 10 trucks?+
For a single owner-run shop, HireAligned is usually the closer fit. That's who most of our customers are, shops doing $1M to $50M a year. Work With Your Handz describes itself as built for mid-to-large service businesses, multi-location operators and PE-backed platforms, so it's the stronger pick if you're running several brands or locations.
How much does Work With Your Handz charge?+
Work With Your Handz doesn't publish prices. Its FAQ says pricing depends on the engagement type, which can be contingency, retained executive search, RPO, contract staffing, temp-to-perm, or AI screening, and asks employers to contact them. EGIA members get a 4% rebate on its recruiting services through the Contractor University marketplace. HireAligned doesn't publish prices either. Both quote on a call.
Does Work With Your Handz do contract or temp-to-perm staffing?+
Yes. Its site lists direct hire, temp-to-perm, contract staffing, RPO and talent advisory. HireAligned does direct hire for permanent roles, from techs up to leadership. If you need seasonal or contract labor, Work With Your Handz covers that and we don't.
How fast do trades recruiters fill roles?+
Work With Your Handz's published case studies report time to fill under 30 days for most engagements, and about 45 days for a leadership-focused one. HireAligned customers usually hire in 1 to 4 weeks. Eagle Pipe filled a lead plumber role in 4 days, and AirWorks hired two HVAC comfort advisors in 3 weeks.
Can I use HireAligned without handing off my recruiting?+
Yes. Besides the done-for-you service, HireAligned has a done-with-you plan where your own office runs hiring on our software, with the same ten-minute text-back and screening. Work With Your Handz's site describes service engagements only.
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