Over the last year, we have seen the Upwork Community engage and grow like never before. You have literally helped us take off! But one thing missing has been a true way to celebrate our members.
Community is the heartbeat of Upwork. It drives us forward, and it’s important to recognize the meaningful contributions of all the individuals who make an impact day in and day out. Community members have the power to make others feel valued, seen, and cared for. We truly are better together. Realizing your potential to continue to grow as a professional and helping others along the way makes the journey an even more enriching experience for everyone.
Starting today, we’re offering opportunities for members to earn badges — showcasing your one-of-a-kind contributions to the community and beyond. Every engagement, activity, and post will count towards earning a badge.
In addition to rewarding members for community contributions, we also have badges encouraging members to grow their knowledge about using Upwork and prompt new members to review critical information.
Your two most recent badges are then displayed proudly on your profile, where you can enjoy endless bragging rights. On the badge page, found within your profile, you’ll find all 60+ badges and learn how you can earn them. We’re thrilled to implement new and fun ways of showing rewards and recognition to our Community.
To help things take off…we have themed our Community gamification elements around flight – UP WE GO! And will continue to add more fun flight elements throughout community over the coming months.
Working behind the scenes, teams across the Upwork organization are innovating more closely together, creating new initiatives and celebration elements that will continue to evolve in the coming months. The Community Team is grateful to be a piece in the larger puzzle as we work together to champion Upwork’s mission in 2022 and beyond.
Whether you’ve been in the Community for years or you’re one of the thousands of members who’ve just joined us, we are so glad you’re here.
We will continue to build ways to celebrate you, our Community, and support your growth and success on Upwork. The introduction of badging is just one way we hope you know how proud we are to be on this journey with you.
If you have any questions, please view our evolving badging FAQs below. Additionally, please note we’re celebrating the beginning of badging in Community today, and like all beginnings, we’ll continue to learn and refine along the way.
Badging FAQs
What are badges?
So glad you asked! Badges are a fun new way to celebrate all you do in community. You can find them on your profile, casually link them to all your friends, and show off just how incredible you are.
How do I view my badges?
Head over to your profile page in Community, select the badging page option, and view all of your achievements! You can also view badges you haven’t earned yet and what you need to do to earn them!
What’s up with the greyed-out badges?
So glad you asked! The greyed-out badges are badges you have not earned yet — but if you hover over them, you can learn what you need to do to earn them!
How many badges can I earn?
Currently, we have 66 badges that are available to earn! We can’t wait to keep adding new ways to celebrate community members.
How can I earn my next badge?
We love that you are ready to jump in! Head over to your badging page (found in your profile) and hover over any greyed-out badge to learn what you need to do to earn it.
How long will the badge stay on my profile?
Just like one of the greats once said, forever isn’t long enough. So forever... it will stay on your page until the end of time.
Once a badge is achieved, can it be lost if I take a break?
Nope! Once you earn it, it is yours!
Can more than one badge be displayed at the same time?
Your two most recent badges will be displayed on your community profile page. However, all earned and unearned badges are displayed on the badging page, which can be accessed through your profile.
Can I choose which badge is displayed?
Your community profile page will display your two most recently earned badges. However, you can view all of your badges on your personal badging page.
Do badges show up on my community profile page?
Yes! How else would community know about all of your awesome achievements? All badges can be seen on the badging page, which is accessed from your profile.
Am I receiving badges for all of my previous engagements?
Absolutely you are! We think all of your contributions are important and want to ensure you are rewarded for them.
When I earn a badge, do I get Connects?
No, but you do get awesome points from the community team, which exchanges at the same rate of Stanley nickels to Schrute bucks.
Can I unsubscribe from badge email notifications?
Of course, we understand how notifications can get a bit much!
1. Head to your subscriptions (a drop-down under your profile photo)
2. From there, select notification settings
3. Once there, scroll down about halfway, and you'll see badges I earn
4. Next, simply select never from the dropdown menu to the right
Are these emails legitimate?
Yes, well, we hope so! If you received an email from donotreply@community.upwork.com regarding our exciting new chapter celebrating you, our most favorite member — then yes, it is legitimate!
Can I opt-out of badging?
Nope, we believe in celebrating everyone! However, you are more than welcome to unsubscribe from all notifications, so it's like they aren’t even there, except on your profile where proof of your greatness remains forever.
Badges and ranks aren’t essential. Why are resources being spent on this and not on more important things like fixing bugs, getting rid of scam/spam, better communication, etc?
Badges are based on out-of-box capabilities already available within our Community platform. Turning them on didn’t require additional engineering resources and does not take away from other projects or fixes.
Why is this necessary?
It may not be for everybody, and that’s okay. However, badges and achievements are a part of many communities and are a way to celebrate your engagement and activity within Community.
Tremendous opportunity awaits, and we hope you’ll take bold risks, dive in, and start earning badges today! Help us make our new badge program even better! Please share feedback or ideas in our survey.
Hi Sheelu,
Thank you for sharing your feedback. I understand your point, but we do welcome the activity since the Community is open to all Upwork users. We will make sure to highlight relevant threads and posts by pinning them, or featuring them. You can also use the search function if you need to check a specific topic.
Thank you,
Pradeep
Dear UpWork,
I just came across of one bug in the badges section.
So the New to UpWork 102 learning path has the same badge as Working on UpWork 102, as you can see in the picture bellow.
Now you know about it and you can fix it.
Thanks,
Petar
Mehmetcan, Atif, Naveed and others,
As Bethany noted in her announcement and FAQs, badges are meant to reward members for community contributions. Additionally, badges will encourage members to grow their knowledge about using Upwork and prompt new members to review critical information. They do not affect or display on your Upwork profile. Since are based on out-of-box capabilities already available within our Community platform. Enabling badges didn’t require additional resources as the functionality was already available within our Community platform. So this new feature does not take away or disrupt work on other projects or fixes.
Phyllis G. wrote:
When I go to my community profile and click on my badges page, it displays my user name prominently at the top. Do other people see that? If so, can you please prevent that from happening? My user name is supposed to be kept private and I am unable to change it, so please do something about this, forthwith!!!!!
Hi Phyllis,
Usernames should no longer be showing on the Badges page.
Atif S wrote:
Who is a group guide in badges?
what can I do to get this badge?what other necessary facilities and impacts can I get by getting this badge?
how much time can this take to get this badge?
Atif, feel free to visit this page to explore our Community Groups and check out the FAQ page for more information. If you're interested in leading one of the groups as a Group Guide, please complete this form.
Thanks!
Muhammad Asif S. wrote:
Hi, Thanks for Upwork academy, I have completed all the courses. But not get all academy badges. One course Working on Upwork 101 badges remaining but I complete it successfully.
Congrats on completing Academy courses, Muhammad Asif! Badges are rolling out over the next week so some may not show yet. That said, we're checking on this.
