How it works

From a fifteen minute call to someone doing the work.

The whole process, written out in full. What you do, what we do, what you receive at each stage, how long it takes, and the exact point at which anything becomes payable.

PHASE 01

Brief

A short call, then a written search brief you approve before anything is screened against it.

PHASE 02

Screen

Six assessment stages run by a working marketing specialist. Every stage is pass or stop.

PHASE 03

Shortlist

A small set of candidates, each arriving with the work they produced under assessment.

PHASE 04

Start

You interview, choose and onboard, with a 10 business day replacement window behind you.

Show me the process for

For employers and agencies

Seven steps, and you are only in four of them.

The design goal is simple. Move as much of the evaluation work as possible off your desk and onto ours, while leaving every decision that matters with you.

01

The intake call

15 minutes No charge

A working conversation, not a sales pitch. We need enough detail to screen properly, and you need enough detail to judge whether we can actually fill the role.

What you do

  • Tell us the outcome you need, not just a job title
  • Say which tools your team already runs on
  • Give a budget band, even a rough one
  • Say what hours of overlap you actually need

What we do

  • Press on the parts of the brief that are vague
  • Tell you honestly if the budget and the seniority do not match
  • Say plainly if this is a role we cannot fill well
  • Agree the shape of the shortlist and a realistic date
You leave with

A clear answer on whether VetMark is the right route for this role, and a date to expect a shortlist.

We decline briefs. If a role sits outside marketing or virtual assistance, or the budget cannot buy the seniority described, saying so now costs you fifteen minutes instead of three weeks.

02

The written search brief

1 business day No charge

Everything from the call goes into a written brief, and you approve it before a single candidate is assessed against it. Vague briefs produce vague shortlists, and the fastest way to waste three weeks is to skip this step.

What you do

  • Read it and correct anything we misheard
  • Move items between must-have and nice-to-have
  • Approve it in writing

What we do

  • Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves explicitly
  • Set the screening emphasis for this specific role
  • Write the live task and test project the candidates will face
  • Define what a pass looks like before anyone is assessed
You receive

A one page search brief covering scope, must-haves, screening emphasis, overlap hours, rate band and target start date.

03

Sourcing and screening

Varies by brief No charge

This is the part you do not see, and it is the part you are actually paying for later. Two routes exist depending on whether the discipline you need is already covered on the vetted bench.

What you do

  • Nothing. This step exists so that you do not have to.
  • Answer the occasional clarifying question if one comes up

What we do

  • Match the brief against professionals already assessed
  • Open a fresh search where the bench does not cover it
  • Run every new candidate through all six assessment stages
  • Score against the rubric written in step two, not against a résumé
Behind the scenes

Candidates who fail any single stage are stopped there. Nobody reaches your shortlist by scoring well on average.

The six stages are set out in full further down this page, including what ends the process at each one.

04

Your shortlist

2 to 4 candidates No charge

A shortlist is short. Sending you twelve names would look thorough and would quietly move the screening work back onto your desk, which is the thing you came here to avoid.

What you do

  • Read the test work before you read the profile
  • Tell us who you want to meet
  • Tell us if none of them are right, and why

What we do

  • Send each candidate with their live task and test project attached
  • Include the assessor's notes, including any reservations
  • State overlap hours, availability and rate up front
  • Explain why each person cleared the bar for your specific brief
You receive

For each candidate: profile, assessment evidence, assessor notes, working hours, rate and availability.

If the shortlist misses, say so specifically. "The audits are thorough but the client-facing writing needs heavy editing" tells us exactly what to screen harder for. "Not quite right" tells us nothing.

05

Interviews and your decision

Your pace No charge

Our screening exists to make your interview shorter and higher in signal. It never replaces it. You meet every person you are considering, and the decision is yours alone.

What you do

  • Interview whoever you want to meet
  • Set your own additional exercise if you want one
  • Check references yourself if that is your practice
  • Choose, or tell us to keep looking

What we do

  • Coordinate scheduling across time zones
  • Brief the candidate properly on your business and the role
  • Handle the rate conversation if you would rather we did
  • Stay out of the way of your judgement
Still no charge

Nothing is payable at any point in the process until someone actually starts work.

06

Onboarding week

First 5 days Fee begins

Most remote hires that fail do not fail on capability. They fail in week one, on access, expectations and communication norms nobody wrote down. So we write them down.

What you do

  • Provision tool and account access on day one
  • Name the person they report to and check in with
  • Agree a first deliverable with a real deadline

What we do

  • Send an onboarding checklist covering access, tools and comms
  • Confirm working hours, response times and reporting cadence in writing
  • Check in with both sides at the end of week one
The point

The professional works inside your systems, your Slack, your project tool and your reporting stack. There is no portal and no account manager sitting between you.

07

The 10 business day window

Replacement guarantee

You did not sit in the screening calls, so you should not carry the whole risk of them. For the first 10 business days after a start date, the risk sits with us.

What you do

  • Email us inside the 10 business day window
  • Say specifically what is not working
  • Keep the role and brief materially the same
  • Settle any invoice for work already performed

What we do

  • Run the replacement search at no additional fee
  • Feed your specific reasons back into the screening rubric
  • Refund the placement fee in full if we cannot present a suitable replacement within 30 business days
Plainly stated

Not the right fit? We replace them free within 10 business days.

The window covers the search and screening effort. It does not refund payment for work the professional actually performed, and it does not cover consequential losses. The full terms are on the Terms and Policies page.

Inside the screening

Six stages. Select one to see exactly what it tests.

Most marketplaces use the word vetted and leave it there. Here is ours, opened up, including what ends the process at each stage.

Skills test

A discipline-specific assessment scored against a rubric built for that role. An SEO specialist is not tested on the same material as an email marketer, because the two jobs share almost nothing beyond the word marketing.

What it tests

  • Working knowledge of the tools and platforms the role actually uses
  • Whether a candidate understands why a technique works, not only that it does
  • Diagnostic thinking, which is the difference between fixing and guessing
  • Familiarity with how results in this discipline are measured

What ends it here

  • Confident answers that are wrong on fundamentals
  • Terminology used correctly with no understanding underneath
  • Scores below the threshold set for the specific brief

Every stage is pass or stop. Failing one ends the process, and there is no accumulated-score route onto the network. This is why a VetMark shortlist has two to four names on it rather than twenty.

How long it takes

Two realistic timelines, and the honest caveat under both.

Speed depends entirely on whether the discipline you need is already covered on the vetted bench. We would rather show you both cases than quote the fast one and apologise later.

Stage
Day 0Day 5Day 10Day 15Day 20+
Intake and briefBoth routes
Day 0 to 2

Day 0 to 2. The call, then the written search brief you approve.

Bench matchDiscipline already covered
Day 3 to 14

Day 3 to 14. Shortlist prepared, interviews scheduled, start date agreed.

Fresh searchNew candidates, all six stages
Day 3 to 25 or more

Day 3 to 25 or more. Sourcing, all six screening stages, shortlist, interviews, start.

These are typical shapes, not commitments. You get a specific date at the intake call, based on your actual brief. If a role will take several weeks to fill properly, we say so then rather than sending a fast shortlist of people who have not finished the process.

When money changes hands

Nothing is payable until someone starts work.

Opaque pricing is the industry norm and it is why buyers approach staffing with their guard up. Here is the entire commercial structure, on the same page as the process it applies to.

$0

Intake and brief

The call, the written search brief and any revisions to it.

$0

Sourcing and screening

All six assessment stages, however many candidates it takes.

$0

Shortlist and interviews

Candidate profiles, assessment evidence, scheduling and coordination.

Start date

The fee begins

Invoiced only once the professional you chose actually starts work.

Ongoing engagement 15% to 25%

A monthly markup on the professional's agreed rate, billed for as long as the engagement runs. The exact figure is confirmed in writing before anything begins. For comparison, traditional staffing agencies commonly mark contractor rates up by 50% to 85%.

Direct hire 15% to 20%

A one-time fee based on first-year gross salary, invoiced on the start date. After that the person is yours, with no ongoing platform fee. Payable only if they actually start.

What we never charge for: job postings, candidate database access, search retainers, or subscriptions. And professionals are never charged anything at all, at any stage. All amounts are in US dollars on net 15 terms.

Before your call

Fifteen minutes goes a long way if you bring four things.

You do not need a job description. You need to have decided a few things. Tick them off as you go.

Process questions

The practical detail.

Questions about how the process runs day to day, rather than about the company.

No, and nothing is payable if you do not. If the shortlist misses, tell us specifically what was wrong and we will use that to reshape the search, or we will tell you honestly that we are not the right route for this role.

Yes, and plenty of clients do. Our screening is designed to make your interview shorter and higher in signal, not to replace your own judgement. You have the candidate's live task and test project in front of you, so your exercise can focus on whatever we did not cover.

We can staff multiple roles across the six categories, each screened separately against its own rubric. There is no bundling of a weaker candidate alongside a strong one. One caution worth stating plainly: several simultaneous roles take longer to fill properly than one, and a client who needs four people next week is usually better served hiring two now and two once the first pair is working well.

The markets we recruit from sit between UTC and UTC+3, roughly 4 to 7 hours ahead of US Eastern. In practice a professional starting at 9am West Africa Time is online well before your morning stand-up. Required overlap is confirmed in the search brief and only candidates who have committed to it are shortlisted.

For ongoing engagements you receive one consolidated monthly invoice from VetMark covering the professional's rate plus our markup, and we handle paying the professional. One vendor, one payment, one paper trail. Direct-hire placements are invoiced once on the start date. All amounts are in US dollars on net 15 terms.

Professionals engage as independent contractors and are responsible for their own tax and statutory obligations in their country of residence. VetMark is a talent marketplace, not your tax or employment counsel, and classification rules vary by state and by how you direct the work day to day. Run the arrangement past your own advisor. The full position is set out on the Terms and Policies page.

Yours. Your Slack, your project management tool, your ad accounts, your reporting stack. We do not insert a portal between you and the person doing the work, and we do not route your communication through an account manager. Tool fluency is confirmed during screening.

Every professional signs a confidentiality undertaking before receiving any client access, and work product created during a paid engagement is assigned to you. For agencies placing talent onto their own client accounts, we can sign your NDA and downstream data-protection terms rather than insisting on ours.

Written notice inside 10 business days of the start date, a specific reason, a materially unchanged role and brief, and invoices for work already performed settled. We then run the replacement search at no additional fee. If we cannot present a suitable replacement within 30 business days, the placement fee is refunded in full.

Tell us anyway on the call. If it is adjacent to marketing or virtual assistance we may be able to help. If it is not, we will say so directly rather than taking the brief and hoping. Screening for a discipline we cannot competently evaluate would remove the only reason to trust the screening at all.

Start at step one

Fifteen minutes, and an honest answer either way.

Tell us the role and what a good hire looks like. If we can fill it well, you will have a date. If we cannot, you will know that today.

Book the intake call Apply to join VetMark
Nothing payable until someone starts. Professionals are never charged. Your team keeps every hiring decision.