Hi, Community!
As businesses begin to settle into the “new normal” of fully remote teams, we know Upwork’s mission of creating economic opportunity so people have better lives is more important than ever. Our goal is for our customers to succeed. At the forefront of all teams’ priorities is supporting our freelancer and client communities. We also understand that many of our customers are concerned. Our freelancer community is wondering if they can maintain a steady stream of projects when so much is uncertain. Our clients are wondering if they can successfully transition their businesses to a distributed team model: Can they move key projects forward without bringing temporary professionals on-site? How can they find the best talent available?
The answer is that with Upwork you can. We are here to help. Below are the highlights of the educational materials and resources we have created so far to help clients, prospects, and our talent community with these questions:
- We released a new offering to all Upwork talent. Direct Contracts allows you to enter into fixed-price contracts with non-Upwork clients, offering access to Upwork's safety and security features with greater flexibility for your business.
- We removed the security hold on hourly payments for Top Rated freelancers and agencies, allowing them to withdraw their earnings 5 days sooner.
- We launched a COVID-19 landing page, which details many new resources, including a COVID-19 job feed. It’s the perfect place to head if you’re looking to make a difference.
- For U.S. customers, we compiled COVID-19 Resources for Freelancers and Small Businesses to help navigate the emerging government programs addressing the economic impacts of COVID-19. We’re here to help with providing documentation you may need to apply for assistance.
- We hosted a webinar for clients on building a remote work infrastructure, which featured our partnership with Citrix.
- We’re giving $1 million in talent grants to help selected businesses hire top professionals from Upwork for projects that counter the impact of COVID-19. Through Work Together Talent Grants, clients can apply for up to $25,000 to be used for Upwork talent. And talent working on these jobs will not pay service fees.
- We created a new remote work online course in partnership with Udacity.
- We’re continuing to add relevant content to our remote work resource landing page, with new articles published each week. Some recent highlights include:
- Creating a Remote Strategy for the Long Haul
- Video Conferencing Etiquette: 10 Tips for Video Conferencing When Working Remotely
- Triage Your Business Continuity Strategy with Independent Talent
- Best Practices for Keeping Your Data Secure with Newly Remote Teams
- COVID-19 Resources for Freelancers and Small Businesses
- Debunking Common Myths About Building Remote Teams
- Preventing Attacks and Breaches in the Age of COVID-19
Recent media:
Our CEO, Hayden Brown, appeared on CNBC’s Mad Money and received the following endorsement by Jim Cramer: "People working at home is the future and you need Upwork to do it." ; You can watch the interview here. She was also interviewed by Bloomberg and Cheddar TV.
Tim Sanders, our VP of Customer Insights, was featured on the April 8 episode of the Yahoo Finance podcast, A World Interrupted (Tim’s interview starts at the 16:30 mark).
Upwork media coverage was also included on AP, TechRepublic, Fox Business, Fortune, Observer, and Harvard Business Review.
