Yes, you can use the VLOOKUP function to match a substring. Here's how:

1. First, make sure that your data is organized in a table with two columns: Employee No. and Place. In your example, it looks like you already have this set up.
2. In a new cell, enter the employee number you want to look up. For example, if you want to look up "994403", enter that in a cell.
3. In another cell, use the following formula to perform the VLOOKUP:
   
   
   Formula:

   =VLOOKUP("*"&A1&"*",Table1,2,FALSE) 

   In this formula, replace "A1" with the cell containing the employee number you want to look up, and replace "Table1" with the name of your table.
   
   The "*" characters before and after the cell reference are wildcards that tell Excel to look for any text that contains the employee number. This allows you to match substrings within the cells.
   
   The "2" in the formula tells Excel to return the value from the second column of your table (the Place column).
   
   The "FALSE" at the end of the formula tells Excel to perform an exact match. This means that it will only return a result if it finds an exact match for the employee number you entered.
4. Press Enter to perform the VLOOKUP. The formula should return the corresponding Place for the employee number you entered.

That's it! You can now use this formula to look up any employee number in your table, even if it appears as part of a larger string.