Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK), the largest global talent platform, said today it is offering full-time hiring. Also, instant pay for workers is cited as a trend this year, and Randstad USA last month announced a deal to provide it to workers. In other announcements, Workday invested an additional $250 million in Workday Ventures, and employer-of-record provider Listo Global announced a seed funding round.

Upwork

Talent platform Upwork Inc. announced today it’s making full-time hiring available to all customers through a new product that enables businesses to find, vet, hire, onboard and pay workers for full-time work arrangements.

Upwork said its research found that 93% of hiring managers often or occasionally convert freelancers into full-time employees. Top reasons include the quality of the freelancer’s work, cited by 71%, and the ability to try working with professionals before hiring them as full-time employees, cited by 41%.

“Today, hiring full-time talent around the globe is an expensive proposition and a leap of faith for everyone involved,” said Dave Bottoms, general manager of marketplace, Upwork. “With this expansion into a full-time hiring solution for all our customers, we have mobilized Upwork’s longstanding expertise, experience and technology to further help businesses and skilled professionals build trusted, long-term working relationships.”

Instant pay

Staffing Industry Analysts forecasts that payroll innovations such as fast payment represent one of the staffing trends to watch in its “Staffing Trends 2023” report. However, only 3% of staffing firms currently offer daily pay.

“Pay cycles were established well before the advent of computerization yet they seem mostly stuck in the past,” said John Nurthen, executive director, global research, at SIA. “With developments in technology combined with the earned wage access trend, this space is ripe for disruption, and we expect staffing firms will increasingly be competing on pay agility to attract and retain temporary workers in a tight labor market.”

In one example, Randstad USA last month reported it is moving ahead to provide talent an option for instant pay with on-demand access to same-day wages.

The plan calls for no charge to either talent or clients for the offering, and Randstad is partnering with Instant Financial to offer instant pay.

Workday

Workday announced a $250 million expansion of its Workday Ventures fund.

The company said the expansion will reinforce the fund’s strategic focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as intelligent automation of finance and HR processes.

An example of Workday Ventures fund’s investments is Paradox, a conversational recruiting platform to automate the talent acquisition process.

Listo Global

Listo Global Inc., a Utah-based employer-of-record services provider, received $1.7 million in pre-seed funding from a group of angel investors.

The company was founded in 2022 by Freddie Ashby and Tyler Dixon.