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Freelancer Job Referrals

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

*UPDATE 6/28 - Job Referrals feature is now available to all talent!

 

We are excited to share a new offering to enable freelancer job referrals, which we are rolling out to freelancers beginning in late March. This offering will provide the option to refer another freelancer on Upwork when you decline a job invite. Referring someone is a quick action that can help spread job opportunities. 

 

We realize many freelancers would like to be responsive to job invites and leave clients with a positive impression, even when they are unable to accept an invitation. With the freelancer job referral offering, we hope to provide an avenue to help with this by enabling you to refer a freelancer you know or search for a freelancer on Upwork who might be a good fit when declining a job invite. Our aim is to help freelancers obtain work best suited for their expertise, spread opportunity and help clients gain high quality talent for their jobs all while growing professional networks and relationships. 

 

How it works:

 

When declining a job invite, freelancers will have the option to help a fellow freelancer by referring them to the job. 

  • To refer a freelancer, simply paste their profile URL or the email that is associated with their account when prompted after selecting “Refer a Freelancer”. If the email is not associated with an Upwork account, they will not receive the referral.
  • You can either refer a freelancer you already know or search for a qualified freelancer on Upwork to recommend.

You may notice new notifications indicating the option to refer other freelancers to jobs you are declining within the invitation and “Find Work” pages:

 

Freelancer A Invitation to Interview.png

 

 

From your “My Proposals” page, you may notice a “Referrals” tab which allows you to view your referral progress including how many people you have referred and jobs referred to you.

 

Referrals tab.png

 

 

What will the referred freelancer see?

 

When being referred for a job, the invite email and notifications will additionally indicate when a freelancer is being referred to a job and will also list the name of the referring freelancer. 

 

The process to accept or decline the job invite, even when invited through a referral, remains the same. Accepting an invitation from a referral does not cost Connects.

 

Freelancer B Invitation to Interview.png

 

 

Freelancer B Invitation Email.png

 

 

What will the client see?

 

When a freelancer is referred for a job invite, the client will see that the freelancer was “Referred” along with the name of the referring freelancer. Otherwise, the information clients see stays the same.  

Client Proposal Manager.png

 

 

Do I earn any perks when referring a freelancer?

 

Referring a freelancer does not include a monetary bonus, but a referral can be helpful to both freelancers and clients. We have heard from the community that helping other freelancers and extending or leveraging your professional networks helps maximize the freelancing experience. Referrals allow freelancers to help one another find new opportunities, aid clients in finding the right fit for their project, build relationships with clients and showcase the freelancer's field of expertise. 



Helpful tips

 

  • Referring a freelancer to a job invite is optional.
  • Only freelancers on Upwork can be referred for a job invite.
  • Invited freelancers can only refer one other freelancer for each job invite they decline, so try to make sure they're a good fit. 
  • You can leave a message for the client to explain why you're recommending a freelancer.
  • Declining a job and referring a freelancer does not affect your JSS. Your response time that displays on your profile will be the same as it would if you simply declined a normal invite. The action taken by the freelancer you refer will have no impact on your profile.
  • If you receive a referral, you will have the option to accept or decline the invitation, and it will affect your response time just like a typical invite. 

 

Please consider both the client and freelancer before referring a freelancer for a job. If you would not normally accept a job for reasons other than limited capacity to accept or such that it is outside of your expertise for example, it may not be a good fit for a referral.

 

Visit the FAQ page for more information. As always, we welcome questions and feedback.

31 Comments
tilkausa
Community Member

This is great opportunity for us. Thanks upwork

fengguochuan
Community Member

Update: I got my first job!!!

youssefbahaa
Community Member

Is this feature still available? Because I am not sure that I can find the "Refer a Freelancer" Button in the invitations that I receive.Refer.JPG

 

AndreaG
Moderator

Hi Youssef,

 

Please know that we're testing referrals with a limited amount of freelancers. Eventually, our plan is that every freelancer on Upwork will be able to refer someone for job invites.

 

youssefbahaa
Community Member

Thank you, Andrea, for your reply. I was asking because I wanted to refer another freelancer to this job post that I received an invitation to. I accepted the invitation and referred him to the client in the cover letter by introducing him properly and adding his Upwork profile link.

zohaumar
Community Member

So excited for this offering! I have made so many people join Upwork and they struggle a bit initially, this will be a great opportunity for me to help them further by referring the jobs I don't do anymore. 

 

Keep up the good work, Upwork! 

puda
Community Member

Hey Upwork,

 

Can you please do some proofreading on https://www.upwork.com/freelancer-referrals ?

 

Lots of words/punctuation/complete sentence missing.

 

"That means they considered who the client was looking for, and when they saw your "

"The action taken by the freelancer you refer "

"Referring a freelancer does not include a monetary bonus, but a referral can be helpful to both freelancers and clients:"

 

I also see some weird spacing.

 

Thanks.

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi Lisa,

 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'll share this report with the team so that they can review the said errors. 

jessicasimko
Community Member

Andrea G wrote:

Hi Youssef,

 

Please know that we're testing referrals with a limited amount of freelancers. Eventually, our plan is that every freelancer on Upwork will be able to refer someone for job invites.

 


I like this idea but I really think freelancers need a way to chat with each other. Someone referred a client to me and the job wasn't the best fit so I declined it.  I felt terrible doing that - I do not know the person who referred me but I really wish he would have been able to contact me first and we could chat about it so that the client didn't get declined by him AND me. 

sunilsuresh
Community Member

@Vladimir G,

 

On 04-29, in reply to Seth B, you said that "the freelancer will receive an email notification informing them they have been referred an invitation from you, as the referrer."

 

I am sorry to say that this does NOT seem to be working.  Today, my wife received an invitation for a job that was not fit for her skills, but she felt that I could work on it. So she declined the job and referred it to me.

 

However, it's been more than 6 hours and I have not received any message about the referral. (Before you ask, I have checked my spam folder too!).  When I logged into Upwork just now, I find that the referral is there in my "Invitations to Interview List" and it says that the job was referred to me 6 hours ago!

 

So, it looks like something is broken somewhere: The notification of the job referral was never sent to me.

 

Please look into the matter.

 

Regards,

Sunil Suresh