Upwork will make full-time hiring available to all customers for the first time. The company announced a new end-to-end solution that will allow businesses of all sizes to find, vet, hire, onboard and pay skilled professionals in full-time work arrangements.
It’s the first time Upwork has made full-time hiring available to all customers.
Upwork’s betting it can leverage its experience helping businesses find talent around the world to address challenges they face when filling full-time positions. New product features and improved capabilities allow users to discover, evaluate, hire and work with Upwork’s global pool of more than 2 million professionals. All of these candidates have indicated their openness to full-time work, Upwork said.
End to End
Highlights of Upwork’s solution include:
- A mechanism to allow clients and talent to trial a contract-to-hire working relationship before they commit to a long-term engagement. Since the beginning of 2023, clients testing this feature posted over 40,000 contract-to-hire jobs on the Upwork marketplace, the company said.
- Expanded availability of Upwork’s payroll, compliance and contract management tools – formerly reserved for Enterprise Suite clients – will help small and mid-size businesses classify and pay talent, whether found on Upwork or sourced through their own network.
- Enhanced Enterprise Suite capabilities help large businesses classify, hire and pay full-time talent at scale, driven by customized onboarding workflows, systems integrations and advanced reporting that accelerates talent innovation.
According to Upwork’s 2022 Future Workforce Report, 93% of hiring managers often or occasionally convert freelancers into full-time employees. Their top reasons for doing so: the quality of the freelancer’s work (71%) and the ability to try working with the freelancer before hiring them (41%).
In a blog post, Dave Bottoms, Upwork’s vice president of product, said red tape, inefficiency, lack of good talent sources and complex international employment laws make global full-time hiring an “astronomically expensive bet.” “The process ultimately equates to a leap of faith for everyone involved,” he said.
Image: Upwork
