Vcheck has grown exponentially over its tenure–2,500% since our founding. Even just this year, Vcheck’s headcount grew by 68%. While exciting and fulfilling for our employees, this growth presents our People team with a unique problem: How do we maintain an efficient, thorough, and fair interview experience for all candidates?
Our People team saw their role as a responsibility to a greater cause–both team members, and those we just hadn’t met yet. We re-evaluated all aspects of our hiring process, focusing on hiring for growth, capacity, and our company’s future.
We developed a hiring philosophy to reflect just that: Finding the right talent doesn’t simply involve filling open positions; it begins with how we treat our talent, which aligns with our mission as a human-first due diligence company.
To that end, we use a holistic approach to recruiting and hiring, focusing on team culture, vision, and scalability to maintain the company culture we’ve spent so much time fostering.
Perhaps most importantly, we hire for growth, meaning we believe in internally promoting and developing talent in-house. Our employees, and thus, our candidates, are an investment in our company’s future. It’s our philosophy that a company is largely responsible for its employees’ professional development, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Journey through the Hiring Process
Because of our intense focus on culture, we examined employee feedback to enhance our process. Broadly, Vcheck’s employees are pleased with the company’s culture, with 94% reporting being pleased with their manager; this highlights our focus on team trust as a sticking point. When we re-examined our hiring process, we wanted to bolster our company’s strong culture and team synergy and align resources accordingly.
In this section, we’ll walk through our hiring process.
Letting the Hiring Manager Lead
Everyone at Vcheck understands the importance of hiring, and we spend significant company resources training our hiring managers to ensure they’re building effective, strong teams. They also receive interview training to create a comfortable, conversational atmosphere critical to finding a mutual fit. As a result, Vcheck’s hiring managers take their role seriously and are eager to think outside the box to expedite the recruiting process.
Our hiring process prioritizes team fit and trust, so we invest more time in developing a thorough understanding of a hiring manager’s goals. Together, our Talent Acquisition team and hiring managers discuss who their ideal candidate is on paper–what qualifications, experience, and background they’re looking for.
By focusing on these prerequisites, we can strategically narrow down the candidate pool, ensuring that the hiring managers only meet with individuals who can potentially be a great fit. This saves time for both the hiring team and the candidates, allowing us to focus on quality over quantity. It’s also beneficial for both parties, as it speeds up the interview process, enhancing the candidate’s experience.
Creating a Comfortable Interview Environment
In the words of our Talent Lead, Zack Clark, “Interviewing can be a nerve-wracking experience. We aim to create a comfortable and welcoming environment so that candidates can feel relaxed and confident, allowing them to present their best selves. By going into these interviews with the mentality of wanting candidates to succeed, we hope to help them focus on showcasing their skills and qualifications.”
Vcheck’s interviews bolster our focus on a holistic candidate experience. This term can be a bit of a buzzword, but we take our candidate experience very seriously. Our interviewers are trained to engage in casual, conversational interviewing and make the process as conversational as possible, helping candidates showcase their true potential without the added pressure of a formal interview setting.
Going Beyond the Resume: Tips for Jobseekers
After receiving applications, our talent team compares each candidate to the hiring manager’s guidelines, examining who they believe to be potential fits based on the profile the hiring manager mapped out.
The candidate’s work experience is the first thing we examine. We aim for all candidates to have a background that aligns with the organization’s more tactile needs and that they’re well-rounded people capable of contributing to Vcheck’s evolving culture.
Our investigators are a great example of this. Our Due Diligence and Vcheck Intelligence teams are a melting pot of different languages, cultures, and backgrounds. For instance, we’ve recently hired individuals who speak nearly 20 languages, bringing a wealth of diverse experiences and perspectives. This organic diversity is one of the many strengths of our team, reflecting our commitment to hiring the best talent.
Regardless of the team we’re hiring for, our leadership team has developed prerequisites for any candidate seeking to join our organization. Whether we’re hiring for sales, investigations, or customer success, there are a few key traits we look for in our talent pool:
- Scrappiness: As a relatively young organization, many of our teams are inherently lean and have a mindset toward improvement. This is one of our most significant differentiators as a firm: impact. Vcheck employees aren’t ‘cogs in the machine’ and have a real opportunity to create change. Sometimes, this means maintaining an open mind. And, sometimes, Vcheck employees have to be a little scrappy.
- Hunger for Growth: Along similar lines, Vcheck seeks those eager to grow and learn within the organization. We’re a medium-sized company with big growth plans, and for candidates, this means greater learning opportunities. Across teams, eager employees are exposed to lots of different practice areas and information, allowing them to learn quickly. Those who come in with an open mind and are ready to take on new challenges often succeed at Vcheck.
- Team Player: While technical skills and experience are essential, working well within a team is equally crucial. We look for individuals who can collaborate, communicate effectively, and contribute positively to the team’s goals. In other words, we want our employees to want to be here as much as we do!
- Work Ethic: A strong work ethic is non-negotiable. We value dedicated and persistent candidates who have excelled in their previous roles or academic experiences.
Overall, we look for well-rounded people who are smart and capable, adaptable, and excited about being part of a rapidly growing company. We attract candidates open to new challenges and ideas and approach those ready for implementation.
Culture Fit vs. Culture Add: Vcheck’s Approach
People dynamics are critical in a small team. At Vcheck, we value mutual fit and take great care to ensure our people are as happy as we are to be part of the team.
Because we’re still undergoing significant growth and developing our company philosophies, we invest heavily in the idea of a “culture add” over a “culture fit.” We aim to hire those who bring in diverse perspectives, ideas, and experiences while considering a team’s unique focus.
We take great pride in our C-suite’s excitement and involvement in the interview process and feel it sets the tone of our company’s culture. Our company president, Lyndee Fletcher, still interviews early career hires at the New York office to vet their mutual culture fit. Other ways we determine cultural addition are through informal team and group interviews.
Referrals Are Key
Like other firms, we post jobs traditionally and regularly as our needs are met and shift. We’re lucky enough to receive a relatively high percentage of referrals (30%), meaning that our employees enjoy working here or are vocal about their positive experiences on LinkedIn.
While we’re lucky our employees are happy to work here, we also know that this metric can indirectly indicate employee satisfaction and monitor it closely.
Measuring Success: Is it Working?
Success in recruitment isn’t just about hiring the right person for the job—it’s about ensuring each candidate thrives within the company again and again. Aligning with our emphasis on data-driven results, we measure success through various means, from performance reviews to informal feedback.
Since we began to revamp our hiring processes in early 2024, taking another look and reviewing our hiring processes, our retention rate has increased by 32% (68% in 2023 and 90% in 2024). In 2024, 44% of Vcheck’s employees had been promoted within two years of their initial hire, signaling growth.
Our rolling employee feedback surveys (response rate = 64%) show increased employee satisfaction. Over the past year, we’ve seen a steady increase in responses to the following questions: “I feel valued by the company,” “Vcheck has a company culture I’m proud of,” and “I would recommend working at Vcheck.” In each case, averages have increased by 10% since 2023. Most compellingly, employee responses to the question, “The company is invested in my growth,” have increased by a whole point over the last year (20%). Voluntary attrition supports this at 8.5%, far lower than the industry average.
But perhaps the most telling sign of success is when a new hire reaches out to express their happiness and satisfaction with their role at Vcheck–this validates our hiring team’s work and provides them with a fulfilling and supportive work environment.
Conclusion
Vcheck’s recruitment process is more than finding candidates to do the work. It’s about building a team that will grow and thrive with us, bolstering and contributing to our company’s long-term success. By focusing on culture, understanding the unique needs of each team, and creating a welcoming interview environment, we’ve been able to attract and retain top talent who are passionate about what they do and excited to be part of our journey.
Check out our careers page to learn more about working at Vcheck.
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