In troubling and uncertain times like these, we find more meaning than ever in our company mission, which is to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. It is through this lens that we are responding to the current COVID-19 crisis.
There is no higher value than the well-being of our team members, our customers, and our global community. Upwork is monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our team members, while proactively driving business continuity plans to ensure that we continue to deliver for our customers.
To ensure the safety of our team members as well as our business continuity, we’ve moved from a hybrid to a fully remote model. Upwork was built on a strong distributed team model, with the majority of our 1,700 team members already working remotely from their home offices in more than 800 cities before this crisis. Those who regularly work in one of our three corporate offices have shifted to working remotely as well.
As Upwork’s CEO, I’m very aware that self-employed individuals and small-business entrepreneurs often face heightened risks in economic downturns. Upwork is committed to supporting you through this trying time, and we are working hard to ensure that clients know that your skills and talent may be exactly the thing they need to get through the current crisis.
We have received some questions about Upwork’s approach and want to keep all our customers equally informed, so in addition to sending out emails, we are sharing information here in the Community forums on the steps we are taking and the ways we can help you.
The ways we are all connected have never been clearer, and Upwork remains committed to helping all our community members however we can. In particular, we are working to:
- Help you maintain business continuity. We are working hard with our clients around the world to ensure that their changing business needs are translating into work opportunities for all of you—particularly in this time when the need for work done remotely is at an all-time high. We are investing in developing new job pipelines for you so that you can find meaningful work opportunities on our platform even as this crisis unfolds. We are also helping our clients successfully adapt to remote work.
- Support freelancers in a time of need. We are a Founding Partner of the Freelancers Relief Fund, established this week by the Freelancers Union to assist independent workers in the United States who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For more information, visit here.
- Facilitate your earnings from non-Upwork clients. We are testing a program that gives you the ability to leverage our escrow services and directly invoice your non-Upwork clients. We are here to help you get paid at a time when prior solutions such as cash and checks may not be viable. If you are interested, please sign up here.
- Accelerate receipt of payments. We have heard from many of you a heightened desire to expedite payments from your Upwork clients. We have established an internal task force that is working on how we might do this, and we will keep you posted on these efforts here in the forums.
Our team is working around the clock to develop new resources for our customers and community, and we will continue to share more as the situation evolves. In the meantime, our thoughts continue to be with each of you during this challenging time. Please stay safe, stay healthy, and stay connected—and let us know how we can help.
Sincerely,
Hayden Brown
President and CEO, Upwork
