**Full-time Marketing Launch

The Marketplace and Enterprise Client FAQs and Talent FAQs sections contain responses approved for external use with customers and prospects. 

The Internal FAQs section contains content NOT approved for external use. These responses are only for use internally. 

Marketplace Client FAQs 

Why is Upwork expanding into full-time hiring?

We are committed to building a work marketplace that serves the diverse needs of our customers — whether it's short-term, long-term, or full-time work. Our full-time hiring solution is steeped in years of expertise and technology so we can enable even more organizations and skilled global professionals to build trusted, long-term relationships through our platform.

Will I still be able to use Upwork for short-term projects or contracts? 

Yes! Upwork remains the world’s work marketplace, here to support all your hiring needs, whether you’re looking to hire for short-term, long-term, or full-time work. 

How do I use Upwork for full-time hiring? 

For full-time hiring needs, we’ve introduced products and features that facilitate the end-to-end process of finding, trialing, hiring, and paying highly-skilled, remote talent on one centralized platform. Here’s how it works:

• Find talent open to full-time work by posting a contract-to-hire job — an opportunity that starts with a short-term contract and has the potential to turn into full-time later.
• Choose one or multiple professionals and start working on a short-term contract to evaluate if they fit your needs. 
• If you decide to transition talent to full-time, you’ll pay a one-time fee and are free to use your own tools for contracts, communication, and payment.  
• Alternatively, with Upwork Any Hire, we can help with contracts, payments, and classification. You can also keep using your favorite Upwork tools like Work Diary, Time Tracker, Messaging, and Reports. 
• If you’ve already found talent (short-term, long-term, or full-time) and just need help engaging compliantly or paying internationally, you can use Upwork Any Hire to classify, onboard, and pay them. 

What types of full-time opportunities can I hire for on Upwork? 

With Upwork’s new solution for full-time hiring, you can find, vet, hire, and pay talent in over 10,000 skills who are open to contract-to-hire opportunities. 

Why does full-time hiring on Upwork start with contract-to-hire? 

By first working together in a paid short-term capacity, all parties can try out a working relationship before committing to a long-term engagement. You’re able to better evaluate one, or multiple, professionals and effectively vet their skills, work performance, and determine if they’re a fit for your hiring needs prior to deciding whether to bring them on full-time. 

How is contract-to-hire different from other job posts on Upwork? 

By labeling a job post as a contract-to-hire opportunity, it lets talent know this contract has the potential to turn into full-time work. Opportunities that are contract-to-hire offer the same options and flexibility as any other post on Upwork. For example, you can set the length of the contract, the type of project, and the number of talent you choose to trial at any given time.  

Does the size of my business matter? 

No, full-time hiring on Upwork is open to all clients and businesses of all sizes. 

Am I obligated to hire talent full-time if I hire them for a job with contract-to-hire potential?

No, Upwork highlights contract-to-hire opportunities for interested talent so people open to full-time opportunities can identify them, but it's completely up to you whether you decide to do so.

Can I evaluate multiple talent at a time with short-term contracts?

Yes, you are free to participate in as many short-term contracts as you would like to find the best fit. 

Talent FAQs

Will Upwork continue to offer freelance opportunities? 

Absolutely! As the world’s work marketplace, our goal is to provide limitless ways to work, whether it’s freelance, part-time, and now, full-time. 

Why is Upwork expanding into full-time?

Upwork’s mission is to create economic opportunities to help people have better lives, and we achieve this by providing limitless ways to work, from short-term projects to long-term contracts, to full-time work. Our full-time hiring solution is steeped in years of expertise and technology so we can enable even more skilled global professionals and organizations to build trusted, long-term relationships through our platform.

How does full-time hiring work on Upwork? 

• Show clients you’re open to contract-to-hire—an opportunity that starts with a paid short-term contract and has the potential to turn into full-time work at a later time–in your profile, or search for jobs on the marketplace that are listed as contract-to-hire opportunities and submit a proposal directly. 
• If a client chooses you, start with working the short-term contract on Upwork. This is an opportunity for both you and the client to evaluate fit. 
• If you both agree to transition to a full-time arrangement, the client pays a one-time fee, and can then choose to continue using Upwork’s collaboration tools to work with you, or bring you onto their own systems. 

Am I obligated to go full-time with the client if I take a job with contract-to-hire potential?

No. Upwork highlights contract-to-hire opportunities for interested talent so people open to full-time opportunities can identify them, but there is no obligation to do so. Working together in a contract-to-hire opportunity does not guarantee either party will agree to transition to a full-time working arrangement. 

Is there a limit to the amount of contracts I can take at a time? 

No! The number of contracts you work on at a time is completely up to you.

For example, consider evaluating two businesses concurrently by working on a short-term project for each. If either or both choose to extend an offer, you can decide which one you would like to join in a full-time capacity.

Enterprise Client FAQs

Doesn’t Enterprise Suite already make full-time hiring available to clients? What’s changing?

Enterprise clients have long been able to meet their freelance and full-time hiring needs with Enterprise Suite. That is not changing. We support full-time hiring through:

• Contract-to-hire: 
• Enables any client to find, hire, and convert our talent to full-time employees 
• Enterprise clients can post jobs as “contract-to-hire” to trial talent in advance of extending a full-time offer within the Upwork platform (Note: Compliance customers should work with their talent services team).
• BYO: The Bring Your Own (BYO) Talent program allows clients to invite talent to work with them directly. Bring talent you know and love who aren’t already on Upwork to centralize your contracts, payments and reporting in one place. 
• Classification Services: For clients on the Enterprise Compliance Plan, we’ll determine whether each freelancer you want to engage should be an independent contractor or an employee of our third-party staffing agency.
• Upwork Payroll: Classify and pay talent (whether sourced from Upwork or your own network) through a trusted, third-party staffing agency

While full-time hiring tools are now available to all Upwork clients, our robust, Enterprise-grade platform, access to expert vetted talent, and personalized support services are exclusively available to Enterprise Suite customers.

Will I still be able to use Upwork for short-term projects or contracts? 

Yes! Upwork remains the world’s work marketplace, here to support all your hiring needs, whether you’re looking to hire for short-term, long-term, or full-time work. 

Am I obligated to hire talent full-time if I hire them for a job with contract-to-hire potential?

No, Upwork highlights contract-to-hire opportunities for interested talent so people open to full-time opportunities can identify them, but it's completely up to you whether you decide to do so.

Am I allowed to evaluate multiple talent at a time with short-term contracts?

Yes, you are free to participate in as many short-term contracts as you would like to find the best fit. 

How do I use Enterprise Suite for my full-time hiring needs? 

We continue to make the hiring experience fast, easy, and scalable for Enterprise customers, with our robust platform doing most of the heavy lifting. And if you ever need support, our expert talent services teams are ready to help you build the teams you need.

• Post a contract-to-hire job on the marketplace — an opportunity that starts with a short-term contract and has the potential to turn into a full-time job later. (Note: Compliance should work with their talent services team). 
• You can also search for talent who have expressed interest in contract-to-hire opportunities
• Choose one or multiple professionals and start working on a short-term contract to evaluate their fit. 
• If you decide to convert a contract so you can hire talent you found on Upwork for a full-time job, you can kick off this process within your dashboard and track this process through conversion. (Clients can convert any contract - including those that did not start as contract-to-hire jobs.)
• You’ll pay a one-time fee as detailed in your MSA (discounting applies for relationships of 1.5+ years).
• You can transition the contract to Upwork Payroll or to your own payroll system. 
• If you opt to use Upwork Payroll, we’ll transfer over core contract information for you. 
• You'll start the contract and begin paying and working with that professional still on Upwork

My company is a compliance customer, and I am not able to post a contract-to-hire role in my dashboard. How can I designate a role contract-to-hire?

Your talent services representatives can assist you with posting these roles.

Internal FAQs (NOT FOR EXTERNAL USE)

Does this mean we are launching a product called “Upwork Full-Time?”

No.Externally, we will not be launching a product named “Upwork Full-Time.” We have products and features across the portfolio that enable full-time hiring for our customers. 

What products are included in the Full-Time Launch? 

The launch bundles four Upwork products that together, allow clients to find, trial, hire, and pay full-time remote talent, while also allowing talent to find, trial, and work with businesses with full-time potential. The products are: 

• NEW Contract-to-hire: Enables clients to find, hire, and convert talent on Upwork to full-time employees. In turn, talent can find jobs on Upwork with the potential for full-time.

• Find Contract-to-hire product FAQs here

• NEWAny Hire: Enables small and mid-size businesses to classify and pay talent (whether sourced on Upwork or their own network; independent contractor and payroll)

• Find Any Hire product FAQs here
• Enterprise Suite (BYO and Payroll): Enables Enterprise clients to classify and pay talent (whether sourced on Upwork or their own network; independent contractors and payroll), along with Enterprise-oriented features to support hiring at scale. 

What is the customer’s experience? 

Here is a deck that walks through the contract-to-hire and Any Hire product experiences. 

Contract-to-hire demo videos (internal only)

• Enterprise Client Job Post and Talent Search
• Marketplace Client Contract Conversion
• Marketplace Client Job Post and Talent Search

• Talent experience

Any Hire demo video (internal only)

• Client experience

Enterprise BYO 

• FYI one-sheeter (external)
• How BYO Works (external; client facing)
• How to BYO (video; external)

Upwork Payroll

• Landing page
• Domestic Steps for Upwork Payroll

Does Any Hire also support part-time/independent contractor classifications?

Yes. Any Hire will suggest the proper classification for each contract based on many factors, including local employment regulations that varies from country to country. The classification recommendation may be as a payrolled employee or independent contractor. The customer may choose to follow our recommendation or not.

Will talent be paid for their work during the short-term contract-to-hire phase?

Yes - this is a short-term contract like any other on Upwork, with the possibility of leading to a full-time opportunity. How the client and talent choose to work together is entirely their decision.

What’s the difference between Any Hire and BYO/Upwork Payroll?

Upwork’s classification expertise allows businesses to work with professional talent in 180 countries. While Any Hire is sufficient to support SMBs, Enterprise Suite is better suited for large organizations looking for a fast, flexible, and secure way to classify, hire, engage, and pay independent global talent at scale.   

Additional benefits of Enterprise Suite include:

• Access to Enterprise-level talent and talent services
• Customized workflows to fit your internal onboarding process
• Increased governance and controls with enhanced purchase order management capabilities and approval workflows
• On-demand access to data and reporting
• Work protection program
• Dedicated account support team to ensure long-term success
• More flexible billing options including invoicing with net 30 terms

Is it possible for an Enterprise user to use Any Hire?

No, customers with existing Enterprise accounts attempting to register through Any Hire will be redirected to their Enterprise account.

How will we help Enterprise customers find the right solution?

While the features and value propositions for Any Hire and BYO/Upwork Payroll are similar, large businesses require a more robust solution (platform + services) that solves for their complex requirements of doing business and which Enterprise Suite is uniquely positioned to deliver. Therefore, we will direct audiences to the right solutions for their needs. For example, customers with existing Enterprise accounts attempting to register through Any Hire will be redirected to their Enterprise account. We have also built in workflows to promote Enterprise Suite to new Any Hire customers that fit the ideal profile

The step-by-step process for full-time hiring on Upwork

Marketplace Client

1. Post a job on the marketplace and select “Yes” when asked, “Is this job a contract-to-hire opportunity?”

2. Review the talent that submitted proposals for your job 

3. Decide on one or multiple professionals that you’d like to trial 

4. Start the contract with one or multiple professionals 

5. Run the project on Upwork as you normally would 

6. At the end of the contract, evaluate if there’s a fit for your hiring needs.

7. If there’s a fit, convert the contract for a fee of 13.5% of a freelancer’s estimated annual earnings. (detailed explanation)

8. Transition the contract to Any Hire (if moved to Any Hire, core contract information is transferred over), or directly to your payroll system.

9. If on Any Hire, start the contract and begin paying and working with that professional still on Upwork

Enterprise Client

1. Post a job on the marketplace and select “Yes” when asked “Is this job a contract-to-hire opportunity?

1. Currently not available in the job post flow for compliance customers

2. Clients must signal to their account team their interest in posting a C2H role

3. Talent services team members can select the profile setting for "open to C2H" 

4.  in Recruiter Accelerator

2. Review the talent that submitted proposals for your job 

3. Decide on one or multiple professionals that you’d like to trial 

4. Start the contract with one or a few of the professionals 

5. Run the project on Upwork as you normally would 

6. At the end of the contract, evaluate if there’s a fit for your hiring needs.

7. If you choose to transition the talent to full-time work, convert the contract for a flat fee. (fee is negotiated in each MSA, 10k is standard)

8. Transition the contract to Upwork Payroll (if moved to Upwork Payroll, core contract information is transferred over), or to your in-house payroll system

9. If on Upwork Payroll, start the contract and begin paying and working with that professional still through Upwork

Talent

1. Search for jobs on the marketplace that are listed as contract-to-hire opportunities 

2. Submit proposals for jobs that interest you

3. Interview with interested clients 

4. Start the contract with the company

5. Run the project on Upwork as you normally would 

6. At the end of the contract, you can both evaluate how you want to proceed.

7. If you both agree to transition to a full-time work arrangement, the client requests to convert the contract so they can hire you

8. Say yes to the contract conversion (no fees for talent) so the client can set up a new contract and can handle payments in the way they prefer

9. If the client transitions to Any Hire or Upwork Payroll, start the contract and begin working on Any Hire or Upwork Payroll

10. If the client uses third-party systems, start the contract and begin working using those systems