Upwork Review: Should you hire from Upwork for your Small Business?
Talent acquisition is a challenging task in today’s business scenario. The quality of an employee plays a vital role in the success of any organization. Productive employees can take your business to new heights, and the opposite is also true. For a small business hiring a full-time or freelance employee proves to be a costly and time-consuming ordeal. It is arduous to find suitable talent even during the best of times. This is where Upwork comes in with its shining armor for small businesses. Check out our unbiased upwork review.
Upwork Review 2020
What is Upwork, and how does it work?
Many talented professionals opt to work as freelancers after bidding adieu to secure full-time jobs. They sign up on the digital marketplace and offer their services to various organizations. Upwork is one such digital platform. It is an online platform of highly-skilled freelancers. More than 12 million freelancers have registered on Upwork, as per the recent report. Companies find it easier to source and hire freelancers from Upwork. Since it has an online presence, geographical limitations don’t hinder recruitment. Businesses can easily sign up or register themselves on Upwork and post a job requirement. Interested candidates can apply for the job. All you need to do is choose the ideal candidate for the job. Presently Upwork has more than 5 million registered organizations.
Pros – Upwork Review
It is an affordable hiring solution for small business. Small businesses have the option to choose freelance highly-skilled professionals either on an hourly basis or on a project basis. This reduces the cost of hiring someone on a full-time basis.
The online talent sourcing platform gives the business access to a wide network of talented professionals across the US.
It is easy to use the Upwork desktop app.
The Upwork Messenger offers real-time interactions with the freelancer.
You have the option to work on a trial basis with a potential freelancer so that you can ensure the best talent has been selected.
Cons – Upwork Review
The clients registered on Upwork needs to pay a processing fee. Initially, Upwork offered free registrations for clients/businesses.
The number of applicants who apply for job postings is huge in numbers. Hence it becomes difficult to choose the best candidate. You run the risk of hiring an incompetent candidate for the job.
Freelances at times, do not give complete access to code files, graphics, presentation, templates to the client even after receiving the final payment.
Upwork Pricing
The prices are affordable for small businesses. The pricing model is based on a percentage basis. The client has to pay a 2.75% processing fee on the payment made to the freelancer. For e.g., The payment made is $1000, then you would need to pay $27.5 as processing charges. So lower the amount of transaction lower, the processing fees to be paid.
There is another fee structure for clients based in the U.S. The client whose processing fees exceed $910 a month can pay monthly fees of $25. However, this fee structure is applicable on a case-to-case basis on prior approval from Upwork.
Features Overview of Upwork
Upwork Messenger service ensures real-time communication with the freelancer. This is the best way to document your needs and specifications pertaining to the work offered. This also acts as evidence in case of any disputes.
There is an option to conduct a paid test to determine the capabilities of the freelancer. This ensures that you select the best talent for your work.
You can set milestones when you assign the work. Payment needs to be made once the work meets your specifications.
On successful completion of work, you can make an online payment to the freelancer. You can use credit cards, debit cards, or bank accounts to execute a payment. It has a payment protection system to make secure payments.
In case of any disputes pertaining to billing, the client can file dispute complaint with Upwork.
Upwork Customer Support Review
They have excellent customer support. Support is available 24/7. They can be contacted on chat or phone support line or via a support ticket system. There is an FAQ session on their website. This provides solutions to almost all questions. They also have a direct support line.
Upwork Ease of Usage Rating
Upwork is easy to navigate and the site is periodically updated. Hence the look and feel are refreshing. The sign-in process is simple and can be completed quickly. For ease of use, we give it full points – 5/5
How a small businessman can use Upwork?
For a small businessman, limited resources hamper quality hiring. Hiring a qualified on-site professional comes at a high cost. By hiring freelances, you get the best talent at good rates. You need not invest in an office, a workspace, insurance and more. Upwork is free to sign up. You can browse through the profiles of the freelancers and the projects they have handled
There are no monthly fixed fees. The processing fees that need to be paid are quite low as compared to the fees that you would have to pay to a recruitment consultant. At such low prices, you get to hire from the huge network of professionals across the globe.
However, a small businessman should be cautious while offering the pay-out for freelancers. Low pay-out would mean bad quality of work from below average freelancers. Once this is taken care of, Upwork is the best solution for talent acquisition for the small businessman.
Conclusion Upwork Review
There are other online platforms for freelancers on the market. This is because more and more professionals are opting to work on a freelance basis. A report says that by 2020, more than 40% of Americans will choose to work on a freelance basis.
Upwork is a popular online marketplace for freelancers and companies. It gives you the option to choose talent from a large pool of professional networks. You have the option of hiring them on an hourly basis or a project basis. This gives flexibility to your organization.
The Upwork desktop app is user-friendly. The pricing policy of percentage pay-out makes it an affordable staffing solution for small businesses.