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hw_skuratov
Community Member

Stats + some ideas and improvements for Upwork

Hey there, community!

I was searching for an appropriate forum thread to post this, or ask, but couldn't find it. I wish there was some sort of a "propose feature" button or that you were able to post your suggestions in the platform category.

So, I'll start by asking about the statistics. I think it's fair to ask how often regular clients actually hire. I would love to see the stats on:

Job posted vs job with hires and see the ratio.

Knowing how likely you are as a freelancer to get a job even before applying to it can help Upwork to reduce the number of freelancers who desperately try to apply and get a job, even when the chances are low.

Second, and it's important for the whole community is the clients. I feel like Upwork lacks quality clients - those who come here to hire, to outsource, to find talent. The number of jobs hasn't really changed since 2020 and is about 200k at any given moment. Take 20-30% of no-show clients who post and forget about their posts, and you have less than 150k jobs for more than several million active freelancers.

Making sure Upwork works towards landing and acquiring new clients would enable the platform's growth. I am positive that having more clients would enable the platform to grow - not adding extra burden on freelancers.

Adding things like pre-moderation and screening would help freelancers ease their lives, scrolling through spam and blah-blah-blah proposals that clients sometimes post. I am talking about jobs that have no meaning and actually take away freelancers' time because they show up on the search page.

Maybe adding an extra fee for not hiring anyone would make the clients perceive this as a job platform and not a forum where they can ask a question, make freelancer spend their connects (money) applying, getting a response, and forget this platform exists once they received an answer.

I know that this might not be necessarily good for the market, as it regulates itself, but I think it's time to make the minimum bid/rate that the client can offer for the work higher. While there's work for 2-3$ per hour, there would be low-balling freelancers and low-quality, spam proposals, and poorly-executed work that would lead to clients leaving the platform.
Making sure the minimum rate is increased, we are going to solve two problems: low-balling freelancers that only want to land a contract and who are sometimes not very qualified for that job, AND we are going to move away those clients who are only here for free work or who do not appreciate quality work/skilled freelancers.

To anyone reading this: if you are a freelancer - feel free to share your thoughts and experience, maybe ideas, so this post gets more traction and is visible to Upwork reps.
if you're a client who actively hires here - I would also love to hear your thoughts on what can make Upwork a better place for you. What do you like and dislike about Upwork, working and hiring here, fees, and other things?

Cheers!

4 REPLIES 4
kelly_e
Community Member

Love many of your ideas, Oleksandr! Stats I'd like would include better graphing of proposal views—right now it's 7d, 30d, 90d, "this year." Why not be able to type in the time period I want to look at? (Well, I know why, it's so I won't be 100% sure my views are in a toilet, but if that's Upwork's plan then be transparent about it.)

 

.

"Feel free to share your thoughts..."

Okay, I'll bite.

 

[But note: Some of this could be controversial—I'm not really looking to have spitballs directed at me, I'm trying to give Upwork some thoughts. Big things have to happen to make big change.]

 

I sent this note privately to Upwork via several methods, but who knows if anyone got it. I've mentioned my wish for a suggestion box on the forum before, and since you've got one open...

...

...

 

Upwork, you charge freelancers more and more but you don't take care of the basics to make the site WORTH more and more. Are you desperate? Are these your last gasping breaths?

 

 .

Automate finding and trashing duplicate listings. Automate finding and trashing listings with contact info in them... and go further, get rid of any links at all in listings, until a contract is in place. That takes care of many scammers, who hope to get in and out before you spot them. Be ruthless in banning scam posters, sockpuppet accounts, and other TOS violators.

 

Don't allow unverified client accounts. We get charged to connect with employers—charge them a tiny fee to connect with us, and make freelancers seem like they might have value. As it is, you devalue us first, before employers even get a chance to do so.
 
Find ways to encourage hires—
—Do you send an email for every proposal? Why not? What harm letting clients see the proposals individually before returning to the UW site?
—Do you send frequent-enough reminder emails during the next 30d? One on 2nd day (after which few hires are currently made) "32 Upwork freelancers are hoping to make YOUR job a great success!", one on 5th, one on 9th and 19th ought to perk up waning interest, maybe with randomly-selected proposals excerpted in them.
—Other...?
 
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Don’t allow jobs by U.S. employers to be posted for under the U.S. minimum wage (which is low enough!). Should be easy enough to carry that through to other countries and their minimum wages, as well.

 

Cull lowest quality freelancers, so employers get a better experience. That seems hard but doing the hard work is what you’re here for. Even consider a max of daily proposals per account to slow the firehose. (Since freelancers have to be verified, this should hopefully not be able to encourage sockpuppeting.)

 

Think a LOT harder about making the algorithm work to get your good/ better/ best freelancers employed, so you keep your base of experts who are in it for the long haul, loyal and happy.

 
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You need more clients, not more freelancers. Turn on the right spigot and turn off the other. I suggest hiring an excellent indie ad agency, such as [X - here I suggested an old friend of mine], to get more and better-quality employers flocking to the site. Nobody knows how to turn this morass into a miracle like my old friend [X] does, trust me. Tell him I said Hi.

 

 .

Make the site work better for the people who PAY you, and who could evangelize about you and help you grow the company if you were worth the praise—the freelancers. It seems a lot like you don’t know that you are the product and we are the customers. When you are more valuable, we hand you money and say thank you for doing so!

 

You can carve out a quality niche—or you can drive Upwork into the ground, wringing little bits of money from a larger, but lower-end pool of ever-less-satisfied freelancers... and become the junk you used to differentiate yourselves from.

Great ideas. The website should be client-centric, but both sides are clients here - freelancers and clients/companies. Making sure everyone is treated well, have the same opportunities and can grow here, making a living off of Upwork would do the thing.

P.S. When talking about stats, I was referring to general statistics for all works and the average percentage of hiring, e.g. "how many clients do hire after posting a job". I think knowing your chances would help. 

Examples: there are currently 205k jobs. A month ago there were 200k jobs (just a random number). Of those 200k there were only 40k hires and other jobs hung for a month and were closed. That would make the ratio/the likelihood of this job ending up with a hire rate of 20%. This will eliminate that shadiness, and anyone would expect that 80% of those jobs will end up in a trash bin.

For many, it will be a defining factor for whether to stick with Upwork or not.
Upwork said many times that it doesn't need more freelancers and proceeded with making the bidding process more expensive, so fewer people apply to jobs, hence clients get more qualified and tailored proposals (not sure if that is actually what is happening, since boosting made it ridiculous and people spam their proposals just paying 20-40 bucks to get seen).

Oh, yes, I understood the kind of stats you meant. That vulnerable level of transparency isn't likely to come from Upwork, but I do think we'd all welcome it.

8467c28e
Community Member

Hi Oleksandr,

 

It's great to see that you're passionate about improving the Upwork platform and experience for both freelancers and clients. I appreciate your insights and suggestions, and I'll try to address your concerns one by one.

 

Job posted vs job with hires ratio: I agree that having this statistic available could be helpful for freelancers in understanding their chances of landing a job. Upwork could potentially include this data in the platform's analytics dashboard, which would allow freelancers to make more informed decisions when applying for jobs.

 

Attracting quality clients: Upwork should indeed focus on acquiring more quality clients to create a thriving and sustainable ecosystem for freelancers. To achieve this, Upwork could invest in marketing campaigns and targeted outreach to attract businesses looking for skilled freelancers. This would help balance the supply-demand ratio and create more opportunities for freelancers.

 

Pre-moderation and screening: Implementing stricter screening measures for job postings could help filter out spam and irrelevant proposals. This would save freelancers time and improve the overall user experience. However, it's essential to strike the right balance to avoid discouraging genuine clients from posting jobs.

 

Extra fee for not hiring: Introducing an additional fee for clients who don't hire anyone could encourage them to take the platform more seriously. However, this might be controversial and could potentially deter some clients from using the platform. Upwork could consider a trial period to evaluate the impact of this change.

 

Raising the minimum bid/rate: Increasing the minimum rate could help tackle the problem of low-balling freelancers and clients who are not willing to pay for quality work. This would help create a more professional environment on the platform and improve the overall quality of work. It's essential, however, to find the right balance so as not to exclude potential clients with smaller budgets or freelancers from countries with different cost-of-living standards.

 

As a freelancer, I'd love to see Upwork continue evolving and improving the platform to better serve its users. Encouraging open discussion and collaboration between freelancers, clients, and Upwork representatives is an excellent way to achieve this. I hope this post gains more visibility and encourages constructive dialogue on how to make Upwork an even better platform for all.

 

Cheers!

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