Text recognition with VLOOKUP?

For staffing/ payroll purposes, I am putting together a spreadsheet which will convert the number of hours a person works in a day to set shift times. I have used a VLOOKUP function with success if standard hours are entered.

The problems start when I require the program to identify annual leave and public holidays. While numbers have worked, I have not been able to get the VLOOKUP function to recognise text with accuracy. It always puts something in the cell but the data is not accurate.

Please find attached an example of how I am entering the formula & data I am working with.

Can I use the VLOOKUP function for this purpose or do i need an alternate formula?

With thanks