Upwork Announces Availability of Full-Time Hiring

Upwork announced a solution that will make hiring full-time employees available to all of it customers for the first time. The company said the end-to-end solution will help companies of all sizes to find, vet, hire, onboard and pay skilled professionals for full-time work.

In addition, the company is releasing new product features and improved capabilities that will allow users to discover, evaluate, hire and work with Upwork’s global pool of professionals. All of these candidates have indicated their openness to full-time work, Upwork said.

With this it seems Upwork is betting it can leverage its experience helping businesses find talent around the world to address recent challenges filling full-time positions.

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.

By Mark Feffer

Mark Feffer is executive editor of RecruitingDaily and the HCM Technology Report. He’s written for TechTarget, HR Magazine, SHRM, Dice Insights, TLNT.com and TalentCulture, as well as Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Staffing Industry Analysts. He likes schnauzers, sailing and Kentucky-distilled beverages.