Frequently Asked Questions

Welocity is an AI-native talent delivery platform. You send us a role, we find, interview and vet the candidates, and hand you a short list of people worth your time. You only pay when someone joins.

Octo is not a chatbot. Octo is our AI interviewer. Octo runs structured video interviews in over 25 languages, probes the answers the way a good technical interviewer would, and comes back with an in-depth technical analysis: what the candidate actually knows, where they're strong, where they're stretching, and how they compare with the others for the same role. Every candidate is scored the same way, so you're comparing like with like.

Octo doesn't hire anyone. Your team does, with far more to go on than a CV. Octo is patent pending, tested for bias across Equality Act characteristics, and the results are published.

Legitimate channels only. Candidates apply to us directly, we source across LinkedIn and the UK job boards, we work with recruiter partners, and we get referrals from people we've placed. Every candidate knows they're talking to Welocity and has agreed to be put forward.

The pool is deep because the group behind Welocity has been doing this for 28 years. Over 27,000 alumni have been placed through us, more than 2,000 engineers are on our payroll today working on contract with our clients, and millions of people have applied to us over the years. That history is where the first shortlist comes from.

Yes. Everyone we send has opted in and has already spoken to Octo about your role. You're not cold-messaging strangers. You're meeting people who know the brief, know the band, and have answered the hard questions once already.

Yes, for a confirmed brief. A live, interview-ready shortlist inside two working days. For common engineering, data, product and GTM roles, offers are signed inside a week. For niche or leadership searches we'll say so upfront.

Yes. London-based founders at seed to Series C get the first hire at 50% off the standard fee and the second hire free. Two people for less than half of one agency fee. Terms are on the founder offer page: what counts as a hire, when the discount applies, and what happens if someone drops out.

We don't flood you with CVs. For one role you get four or five people, top matched on what the role actually needs, not on keywords. Each of them has been interviewed by Octo, put through a deep technical assessment, and live face-checked so the person who joins is the person who interviewed. All of it with the candidate's consent.

If those four or five aren't right, tell us. The AI keeps running until we find the match, and you're not charged for shortlists, only for joins. A miss costs you a day, not money.

In front of them. We take sourcing and first-round interviews so your team spends its time on the conversations that matter. Keep your ATS; we feed it. Most internal teams point us at the roles that have been open the longest.

Engineering, data and AI, DevOps and cloud, product and design, sales and GTM. Permanent and contract, first hire to leadership. If a funded company in London hires for it, we've filled it.

When the candidate starts. No retainer, no subscription, no setup fee, no minimum. If someone accepts and never turns up, you owe nothing.

Every permanent placement has a replacement guarantee. If they leave or you let them go inside the guarantee period, we replace at no fee. Standard is 90 days and it's in your Terms.

No. Never. Charging candidates is illegal for a UK employment business, and we wouldn't anyway.

Recruiters are our delivery partners, not our competition. What's different is the first half of the process: sourcing and first-round interviews happen at scale through Octo, so the humans on our side spend their time on judgement, offer and close. That's how a shortlist arrives in two days instead of two weeks.

We place day-rate contractors too, billed weekly or monthly with our margin inside the rate. On IR35 we'll give you our view before you commit, work from your Status Determination Statement where you're the end client, and pay inside-IR35 contractors through a compliant umbrella or PAYE. Contract-to-perm conversions carry a reduced fee, agreed upfront.

NetConnect Global UK Limited, registered in England and Wales, 41 Luke Street, London EC2A 4DP. Welocity is the trading brand. Our group has 28 years in IT staffing.

Employment agency for permanent placements and employment business for contract staff, under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003. Agency Workers Regulations managed on our side for contract staff, including the 12-week equal treatment rights.

A percentage of first-year base salary as stated in the offer letter, exclusive of bonus, equity and benefits. Standard rates on the pricing page; founder and volume rates separate. Invoiced on start date, 30 days, VAT extra at the standard rate.

We verify right to work during screening (Home Office online service for share code holders, document checks otherwise) and give you what you need to complete the statutory check before day one. We don't sponsor, but we'll flag sponsorship needs and likely Skilled Worker thresholds before offer stage.

UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Candidates get a clear privacy notice; we collect only what the role needs; we act as your processor for the roles you post. The DPA is ready to sign and covers transfers, since engineering and some processing sit in India under the International Data Transfer Agreement. Client data is stored in our EU region (AWS Frankfurt), with UK-specific arrangements available.

Nobody is rejected solely on an automated score. Candidates are told Octo is an AI. A human route is always available. That keeps us inside UK GDPR Article 22 and the ICO's guidance on AI in recruitment. Bias testing across Equality Act 2010 characteristics is published, alongside the AI Ethics Policy.

Independent penetration testing complete, continuous compliance programme, vendor questionnaires answered.

Yours or ours.