An increasing number of people are returning to full-time employment from freelancing.

Hearing this, one might simply assume that a "desire for stability has returned." Alternatively, it could be said that companies facing talent shortages are merely looking for immediate contributors. However, looking a little deeper, there is a different shift underway.

The boundary between the inside and the outside of a company is becoming less distinct than before.

In the past, regular employees were those on the inside. Freelancers were on the outside. Subcontractors were those occasionally tasked with work. Now, however, people who first engage from the outside later move inside. They work on a project, assess the compatibility, demonstrate outcomes, build trust, and then become full-time employees.

Hiring is starting to become a transition, rather than an entry point.

Here lies an issue that does not yet have a name.

Companies wish to hire talent. However, they cannot determine whether a person will truly perform in the actual Field based solely on a resume and an interview. Individuals consider whether to belong to a company. Yet, once they have worked as a freelancer, it is difficult to return to being merely employed.

They do not want to lose their freedom. Still, continuing to work under constant instability is also difficult. It is not that they simply want to join a company. Rather, they wish to engage deeply with a place they can trust.

Conventional hiring categories cannot properly handle this hesitation. Job postings, applications, interviews, offers, onboarding—this linear flow struggles to accommodate individuals with whom a relationship has already begun.

What is needed may not be applicant tracking, but a mechanism to manage the transition of relationships.

This could be called the Transition Hiring Protocol—a cross-border hiring protocol. It is not a means to immediately capture freelancers, outsourced contractors, side-job talent, former employees, or external partners as hiring candidates. Rather, it is a mechanism to deliberately record the history of a relationship: what work established trust, what decisions felt safe to delegate, where cultural friction occurred, and at what distance the individual performs best.

For companies, this serves as a countermeasure to talent shortages. For individuals, it removes the need to settle the fluctuations of their working style all at once. For teams, it provides an opportunity to consider how to welcome someone from the outside into the inside.

However, this should not be rushed into a product. Turn it into a system too quickly, and it will merely become another recruitment tool. Or worse, a sales list for converting freelancers into full-time employees. What is truly necessary is not capturing people, but rather not misjudging the moment when a relationship deepens.

The market will likely emerge after that. For now, it is fine to keep it on HOLD.

To begin, we can simply start by recording when, and at what exact moment, someone who was thought to be on the outside of the company began to appear as someone on the inside.