Upwork Business Plus: Tips and Tricks To Quickly Hire the Best Talent

Quickly identifying and engaging the most qualified talent for your team is now more important than ever given challenging business needs and rapidly evolving in-demand skills. Upwork Business Plus delivers instant access to pre-vetted independent professionals and an AI-guided hiring experience that aligns the top talent on Upwork to your business goals.

Business Plus offers small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners, operators, and founders like you many benefits, including instant access to the top 1% on Upwork, freelancer shortlisting, premium customer support, and flexible payment terms with no up-front costs. 

Through Business Plus, you can manage and pay every freelancer you work with, both on and off Upwork, with one centralized workflow. You can also easily track spend and freelancer success with access to pre-built reports that provide real-time talent performance, team activity, spend, and contract insights. 

Business Plus helps you scale on demand with speed and confidence — without hiring overhead or long-term commitments. Understanding key features of Upwork Business Plus is essential to getting the most value out of the plan. Learn how to instantly access top talent matched to your goals and short-list top freelancers on Upwork for your specific projects to help your business move faster and more efficiently without adding overhead.

Expert-Vetted talent: Instantly access the top 1% on Upwork 

Expert-Vetted talent is a cohort of carefully prescreened freelancers and agencies who represent the top 1% on Upwork.

Expert-Vetted freelancers and agencies across more than 125 categories have successfully completed a rigorous interview and screening process for technical expertise and job-related hard skills such as AI, web development, and design. Freelancers are also screened for soft skill competencies such as communication, emotional intelligence, and reliability.

Business Plus is the fastest way to hire prevetted talent on Upwork, enabling you to instantly access the top 1% on the platform. Follow the steps below to access Expert-Vetted Talent. 

1. Click on the green button Search Expert-Vetted talent from your dashboard
2. Navigate to a page where you can highlight the specific category or skills that align with your needs
3. Review profiles with yellow badges, which indicate Expert-Vetted Talent
4. Send up to 60 invites per job and 15 messages per day

"Upwork gives me access to strong talent at realistic prices for the timeframes I need. That’s huge for a small business like mine that’s running on a tight budget.” 

— Charles Sine, Founder and CEO of Anti-Fragility Health

Shortlisting: Get exclusive access to an always-on hiring agent 

Identifying the most qualified freelancers for your projects requires careful thought and consideration. Uma Recruiter, available through Business Plus, available through Business Plus, simplifies the process for you. 

Start by writing a job post that outlines your project requirements, desired skills, scope, and budget. Simplify the process of writing your job post by using Job Post Generator powered by Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI. Job Post Generator creates an AI-generated job post draft in seconds — all you need to share is a sentence or two about what you’re looking for with your open job.

Once you create a job post, Uma Recruiter, your always-on hiring agent, reviews freelancer profiles and, within six hours, delivers a shortlist of curated freelancer profiles that align with your specific needs. Exclusive access to Uma Recruiter frees up time for you to focus on engaging independent professionals who are the best fit for your business requirements. 

How to request and access a shortlist

Two options are available to request a shortlist through Upwork Business Plus. Follow these steps to get started: 

1. Before posting a job

1. Go to Hire Talent > Post a Job
2. Choose Create a new job post
3. Add your job details, and when prompted with the message, “Get a shortlist” opt in for shortlisting support
4. Submit your job post and Uma Recruiter begins sourcing candidates based on your specific requirements, which only takes a few minutes 
5. Invited freelancers review the job post and submit proposals, which takes a few hours depending on freelancer responsiveness and availability
6. Uma Recruiter reviews all incoming proposals, evaluates quality and fit, selects the best matches, and creates a shortlist of the top matches
7. You receive a notification when the shortlist is complete
8. You can then review, interview, and hire freelancers from this curated shortlist 

2. After posting a job

1. Go to Hire Talent > Your Open Job Posts
2. Select the specific job post
3. At the top of the page, select Get a shortlist
4. Uma Recruiter begins reviewing your job post and provides a curated list of freelancers who align with your needs

Once your shortlist is ready, you’ll receive a notification and can start reviewing top recommendations, including their freelancer profiles, proposals, and notes provided by Uma Recruiter. 

Access your shortlist of talent by following the steps below:

1. Go to Hire Talent > Your Open Job Posts
2. Select the job post associated with the shortlist
3. Choose Review Proposals
4. Open the Shortlisted tab to see the list of talent selected by Upwork’s shortlisting experts

Each time you receive a shortlist of talent, you also have the option to provide feedback on the selected individuals, which helps Uma Recruiter refine future recommendations to better meet your requirements.

Direct contracts: Centralize all of your freelancer contracts in one place 

Managing freelancer contracts across multiple systems or platforms can be complicated and time-consuming. With direct contracts, you can easily manage and pay all of the freelancers you work with in one place — whether you engage freelancers on Upwork or through another source. 

Invite external talent, streamline contracts, and make secure global payments alongside your Upwork hires — all from a single, centralized workspace. Simply pay $49 per month per active contract for external freelancers. 
Direct contracts enable you to onboard external freelancers quickly and centralize essential information in a single dashboard — including contracts, timesheets, payments, messaging, and advanced reporting. Flexible payment options are also available, including hourly, one-time, and milestone-based payments.

Access top talent matched to your goals through Upwork Business Plus 

Access to Expert-Vetted Talent, shortlists of freelancers powered by an always-on hiring agent, and direct contracts are just a few of the many benefits of Upwork Business Plus. With the plan, you also receive priority 24/7 support through access to live experts by chat, phone, or email, so your projects keep moving forward. Log in to your Upwork account to start making the most of your Upwork Business Plus plan today. 

Not an Upwork Business Plus client? Create an Upwork account to get started or, as an existing Upwork client, upgrade to a Business Plus membership plan — with no sales call, subscription fee, or cost to join. Flexible payment options are also available to qualified, U.S. customers — manage your cash flow before making payments with Pay Later terms.

As a Business Plus customer, you’ll simply pay a service fee of 10% on each payment made to a freelancer. Qualified U.S. customers who use ACH payments will pay a reduced service fee of 8%.

Learn more about Pay Later terms and conditions.