Work marketplace Upwork is set to support full-time hiring between its client companies and job seekers, a complete revamp from the company’s current operations.
Upwork’s philososphy has long been to connect companies with independent workers who can perform specific tasks done or freelance for a set time period. Now, the company hopes it can refresh the full-time job search model and bring more clients and workers to the platform.
“I’m so excited that now we’re offering all of our customers a way to really get those full-time relationships off the ground in a much more robust way than ever before,” CEO Hayden Brown tells Fast Company. “With this offering, there’s a much more explicit contract-to-hire expectation that both parties are opting into to say, ‘Hey, is this something where I might want to convert to payroll, and a full-time engagement at the end of a trial period?’”
Upwork’s new model will allow all of its clients to find, vet, hire, onboard, and pay workers from more than 180 countries. As part of the expanded offerings, Upwork will make its payroll, compliance, and contract management tools more widely available to small and mid-size businesses, rather than to just its Enterprise Suite clients. Workers and employers can also try out a job by starting as contract-to-hire before committing to full-time employment.
“Because of procedural red tape and inefficiency, lack of quality talent sources, and inconceivably complex international employment laws, full-time hiring, especially on a global basis, is an astronomically expensive bet, a heavy time investment, and a classification nightmare for employers,” the company said in a blog post announcing the expansion. “The process ultimately equates to a leap of faith for everyone involved.”
The efforts could help propel Upwork into a new age. The company has shed more than 40% of its stock price since its October 2018 public debut, though it is up nearly 16% year-to-date, as of Friday’s market close.
“This gives us yet another tool in our toolkit as we’re thinking about things like expanding customer lifetime value and retention,” Brown says.
