Tools to Support Your Talent Strategy: Upwork Product Updates, Q1 2022

Finding skilled talent, particularly at scale, is one of the most significant challenges for companies today. At Upwork, we’re constantly refining our products so you can not only tap into a global pool of independent professionals but also easily make those critical connections that help move your business forward and enable you to accomplish more. 

Already in 2022, we’ve taken the feedback you’ve given us to improve usability, add features, and introduce new ways for you to build relationships with expert talent. Here’s a look at the highlights.

Support for Ukraine

There’s no work I’m more proud of than the efforts our teams have made to support Ukraine and people in the region, including independent professionals and clients on Upwork, as well as our own team members.

One of the first things we did was introduce a way to send donations to individual freelancers in Ukraine through Project Catalog™. Funds are sent directly to the person you choose—no freelancer fees and no work required. Find a Ukrainian professional to support. 

Our Enterprise clients can make similar donations by offering a bonus payment to any Ukraine-based freelancer they have on active contract. (Enterprise clients: Be sure to write “donation” in the comment field.)

We’ve also released new product features to help independent professionals affected by the invasion of Ukraine. This includes:

• Waiving any potential negative impact on Job Success Scores for Ukraine-based professionals so they can preserve their businesses―even if they’re currently unable to work
• Providing faster access to funds for Ukraine-based freelancers on Upwork through expedited payments
• Making it easier for professionals to connect with clients about safety and work status

We continue to identify ways to help those affected by the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

Find the talent you need more quickly

There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to filling a skills gap. The following features and enhancements will have a meaningful impact on your talent search so you can find the right professional for your unique need. 

Tap into expert advice with consultations

Want to talk to an expert to ask questions and get advice before moving your project forward? Starting on April 7, you’ll be able to book a one-on-one 30- or 60-minute consultation with independent talent. Ask for guidance to help you:

• Confirm the scope of your project and the skills required to meet your goals.
• Assess your project’s feasibility and timeline so you can make necessary adjustments upfront.
• Discover whether a particular professional is a good match for your project before you decide to work together.
• Clarify a question that’s come up as you learn a new skill set or tool.

Consultations are flexible, timely, and easy to book. Learn how to get started.

Shorter searches in Project Catalog

With Project Catalog, you can purchase predefined services that enable you to get your most pressing work started quickly. But you told us that it sometimes takes longer than you’d like to find the right project. So we’ve introduced two changes to speed up your search:

1. Highlighting the most popular types of services in each category
2. Adjusting the ranking algorithm to provide more relevant results

Find professionals by role, not just by skill

Your search for independent talent isn’t always limited to one specific skill. Now, if you’re searching for someone with a range of skills to fill a particular role, you’ll see more relevant results, thanks to updates we’ve made to our algorithm. Also available for Enterprise clients.

No more lost messages with autosaved drafts

Starting in April, you’ll no longer need to worry about whether you’ll lose a message you’re writing on the Upwork app or website. Draft messages will be saved automatically until you either delete or send them. Also available for Enterprise clients.

For Enterprise clients: Confidently scale with new approval options 

Scale your teams with confidence, knowing you can do so quickly while controlling risk and contingent spending. With this new feature, Enterprise clients can enable sequential and simultaneous approvals, as well as multiple approvers. You also have the flexibility to define approval criteria that’s in line with company policies and gain better visibility into whether each request has been accepted or rejected, and why.

More visibility into your talent options

Freelancer profiles are your window into the wide breadth of talent available on Upwork. Here’s how we are making these profiles more robust so you have better visibility into your talent options:

• The “Available Now” badge. When work is time sensitive, you need to know if a specialist is able to start right away. The availability badge does exactly that. Talent can turn it on when they are free to take on new work, then turn off when their schedule is full. Also available for Enterprise clients.

• Richer portfolio samples. Independent talent can now add audio and document files to showcase their best work and give you a better idea of what they can do for you. Also available for Enterprise clients.
  ‍
• For Enterprise clients: ID verification badge. Strong working relationships start with a foundation of trust and ID verification helps ensure a professional, secure marketplace. By extending the process originally created for Upwork’s Talent Marketplace, we’re moving toward requiring that all talent—including those actively working with Enterprise clients—verify their identity.

Connect and network with others on Upwork

Community Groups are online hubs where clients and independent professionals on Upwork can come together to connect in meaningful ways.

New groups are launching monthly across four different categories: 

• Identity―for people who share an experience, community, or location
• Industry―for professionals with shared knowledge and skill sets
• Interest―to introduce the curious to fun topics, emerging technologies, and other activities
• Impact―to link professionals who want to be a force for good

Join an existing group to share your knowledge, learn from others, and expand your network. 

There’s more to come

The past couple of years have been uniquely unpredictable, and this year promises to be no different. Listening to your feedback on how the products and features that are most important to you can work more effectively is a top priority. In the next quarter, you will begin to see new opportunities to tell us how we're doing and ways we can improve and innovate to help your business thrive.

This is only the beginning of what we’ve got planned in 2022. Stay tuned for more.