How WorkPay built a faster, more confident way to hire.
This is WorkPay’s own hiring story — told by the team who lived it. What started as one hard-to-fill senior role became an ongoing partnership across six teams.
6 roleshired with Vetted
30 daysor less to hire
2 of 2filled in round one
“What used to take us 90 days now takes 30, sometimes less. Honestly, that changed how we plan everything.”
Philomena, WorkPay
Philomena on rebuilding WorkPay’s hiring · 1:06
The Goal
What WorkPay set out to change
Three objectives shaped the engagement. Everything that followed was measured against them.
01
Hire faster without lowering the bar
WorkPay needed senior people quickly, but every shortcut they'd tried before traded speed for quality. They wanted a shorter timeline and more confidence in each hire, not one at the cost of the other.
02
Replace guesswork with evidence
CVs and gut feel were driving decisions. The team wanted a structured, defensible view of each candidate that hiring managers and leadership could both point at and agree on.
03
Give recruiters their time back
Screening was eating the hiring team's week. They wanted their people interviewing finalists instead of filtering hundreds of applications that were never going to work out.
Company
WorkPay
Industry
Payroll & HR technology
Roles hired
Senior, hard-to-fill
Partnership
Ongoing, across teams
Hiring Journey
How the process changed shape
A 90-day cycle with no certainty
Sourcing, screening and scheduling stretched across three months. Pipelines were wide, signal was thin, and roles stayed open while the business waited on them.
90 daysaverage time to hire
“Sourcing was always the part we struggled with. Now the candidates show up already checked against what we asked for, so we're not starting from scratch every time.”
JJoshua — WorkPay
Inside the Work
The five steps behind every shortlist
Scroll through the workflow WorkPay’s roles moved through, from role definition to a set of finalists ready to interview.
01Role profile
The role, defined before the search begins
Every engagement starts by translating the role into must-have skills, nice-to-haves and success signals. It becomes the reference every later decision is measured against.
02Evaluation Criteria
Agreed standards, weighted up front
Hiring managers set what matters and how much. Scoring stops being a matter of opinion and becomes a shared scorecard applied to everyone equally.
03Skill Assessments
Proof of ability, not claims on a CV
Candidates are assessed against the real work of the role. Results are comparable across the pipeline, so strengths and gaps are visible before a single interview.
04Recruiter Review
A human read on every strong signal
Recruiters review the evidence, add context and validate the shape of each candidate — the judgement layer automation alone can't provide.
05Shortlisted Finalists
A short list the team can act on
What reaches WorkPay is a ranked set of finalists with the reasoning attached. The hiring team spends its time interviewing, not filtering.
“The assessments gave us something real to talk about. We weren't arguing about impressions anymore, we could just look at how people actually did.”
CCarol — WorkPay
A growing partnership
One hire became six, across six teams
First hire
The role that started it
Second hire
Filled in the same round
DevOps
Infrastructure team
Support
Customer operations
Payroll
Core product team
Talent Acquisition
Hiring for hiring
Outcomes
What actually changed for the business
Beyond a shorter timeline, the change showed up in how confidently WorkPay hires and what that process now costs them.
30 days
Faster hiring
Roles that used to sit open for a quarter now close in a month or less, so teams stop planning around a vacancy.
Evidence-backed
Hiring confidence
Every finalist arrives with assessment results and reviewer context attached, which makes internal sign-off straightforward.
2 of 2
Talent that sticks
Both roles were filled from the first shortlist, and the hires went on to do the work the roles were scoped for.
Lower cost per hire
A more affordable process
No re-opened searches, no second wave of sourcing, and screening hours moved off the team entirely.
The first round was the only round
Both open roles closed from the initial shortlist. No re-opening the search, no second sourcing push, no lost quarter.
Leadership got a decision they could defend
Assessment evidence and reviewer notes travelled with every finalist, so approvals didn't stall on 'why this person?'.
The hiring team got their calendar back
Screening moved off the team, freeing them to focus on the interviews that actually decided the hire.
“We got both hires in the first round. That's never happened for us before, and it's why we kept coming back.”
JJoan — WorkPay
Customer Voices
The team, in their own words
“What used to take us 90 days now takes 30, sometimes less. Honestly, that changed how we plan everything.”
PPhilomena — WorkPay
“Sourcing was always the part we struggled with. Now the candidates show up already checked against what we asked for, so we're not starting from scratch every time.”
JJoshua — WorkPay
“The assessments gave us something real to talk about. We weren't arguing about impressions anymore, we could just look at how people actually did.”
CCarol — WorkPay
“We got both hires in the first round. That's never happened for us before, and it's why we kept coming back.”
JJoan — WorkPay
Next Step
Your next senior hire doesn’t need 90 days.
See how VettedAI defines the role, proves the skills and returns a shortlist your team can act on.