How Upwork Uses Independent Talent to Build Successful Teams

Guy Rom, Joe Wang, and Amanda Leach-Rouvi all manage or have managed big functions and big teams at Upwork. Ask them their secret to driving success, meeting tough KPIs, and keeping their staff motivated and they’ll all say the same two words: independent talent.

We sat down with each of these leaders to ask about their experience working with independent talent, the benefits they see, and how others can build successful hybrid teams.

How can leaders get started if they’ve never used independent talent before?

Guy Rom, VP of Engineering: “Start off slow and see how it works—little projects where you don't have the competency within. It's very easy to get that competency if you're using the Upwork platform. I'll give you some examples. We wanted to take a look at our QA practices and assess them. So we hired a freelancer from Upwork. We wanted to conduct some user exploration work and we hired folks from Upwork.

“At a certain point, there's this aha moment of, like, ‘Oh, wow. This little stuff that I tried worked, and I can actually do so much more here.’ That moment is really cool. You discover that you have access to not just your local network. You actually have a huge worldwide network that you can tap into to get stuff done.”

Joe Wang, former Senior Director of Customer Experience: “If you are hesitant about using independent talent, start with something that is not your core competency. For example, hire someone that can help you do a lot of Excel analysis, or manage your workforce or develop a great onboarding flow.

“Don't think about all or nothing. It is not about replacing your entire operations with independent talent. Think of independent talent as an option that you can adopt to improve the service that you provide to your customers.”

What do you need to know when adding remote independent talent to your team?

Amanda Leach-Rouvi, VP of Integrated Marketing: “When you're incorporating independent talent in your team, it’s important to really understand the specific skills and experience of each person on the team. When leaders have a mental map of the skills and experience of the entire team, they can dynamically assemble the best team for each project. Often, that is going to be a combination of full-time employees and independent talent, which gives you the best perspective and experience for the project.”

Guy: “When building teams with independent talent, you need to remember a couple of things. The first one is that it's not very different. You need to look for people that you think will be impactful, that are good. You still need to talk to them and to make sure that they're a good fit for what your team needs.

“On my team, we focus on feedback and giving people the information they need in order to improve, in order to do a good job. I feel like my team is a lot more excited and a lot more committed because they get this feedback. Because they're not held at arm’s length. They're really at the heart of our business.”

How do you ensure the members of a hybrid team all work together effectively?

Amanda: “One of the big best practices that we follow in implementing a hybrid team and making sure that it's really effective is asynchronous work. A lot of companies default to thinking that everything has to happen in a meeting. But you can get a lot accomplished through asynchronous docs, Slack channels, even asynchronous stand-ups.

“Another best practice that's really important with independent talent on your team is making sure that you're doing a lot to build culture on your team. That could mean having virtual happy hours, impromptu water cooler topics over Slack, even doing things like virtual experiences together as a team.”

Guy: “Enable them to work independently and to communicate when needed. Encourage that communication and make sure that they feel like their work is important and that you're giving it the right level of attention.

“Also, just develop a relationship. Be kind, be embracing of new team members. Because we're humans. We come to work, not just to earn a paycheck. We come to work because there's life there. There's purpose, shared purpose, and it's a joy to share it with others.”

How do you ensure systems remain secure when remote independent talent need access?

Guy: “Some companies are concerned with information security and working with people overseas. That’s not the issue. Bad apples exist in the U.S. or in Europe or in Asia, doesn't matter. Instead, focus on the information security controls that you're putting in place for your business as a whole. And then give people the access that they need in order to do their job effectively.”

Joe: “We provide tiered service and have very solid access control, so people only access the information when they need to. This way, we can also provide protection to our users.”

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