Hayden Brown CEO Upwork

1. Talent Acquisition to Talent Access:
Building a winning culture with a workforce that is 75%freelancers
Hayden Brown
President & CEO
Upwork
@
hydnbrwn

2. REDEFINE
HOW WE WORK

3. If the next 20 years promises
dramatically more change than
the last 20, what does that
mean for your business?

4. Whom we work with is more
powerful than where we work

5. #1 #2 #3
The war for talent has
reached a fever pitch.
The Great Resignation
isn’t just about workers
jumping from one
full-time job to another
—10 million Americans
are considering
freelancing to gain
more flexibility.
Half of Gen Z
professionals
are freelancers.

6. OUR TEAM

7. Upwork has created a culture with freelancers
at the heart of our business
Jessica L.
Copenhagen
QA Engineer
Diane R.
Long Beach
Product Manager
Camille A.
Tempe
Accountant
Ridhi A.
Surat
UX Designer
Jackson M.
New York
Web Designer
3/4
of Upwork’s
workforce is made
up of freelancers
86
countries around
the world with at
least one freelance
team member
100%
Aika Y.
San Francisco
Computer Programmer
of Upwork’s
departments
are hybrid
Charles D.
Toronto
Project Manager
Joseph M.
Cordoba
Video Producer
Kunal P.
Sydney
Systems Analyst

8. “Freelancers
aren’t reliable
—they’re here
today, gone
tomorrow.”
“Freelancers
are low-skilled
gig workers.”
“I can’t build
my company
culture with
freelancers.”
“Freelancing
is a less-than
profession.”
Misconceptions

9. 95%
freelance
composition
91
customer satisfaction
(CSAT) score
<5%
attrition
rate
81
Net Promoter Score
(NPS)
How the CX team drops biases
and builds trust
Strengthens our culture—
including fostering greater
diversity and inclusion

10. 70+
agile development
teams
350+
remote
developers
24/7
coverage
12 mos
from a single product
line to 4 product
lines (and counting)
How Product & Engineering increases agility
and innovation without compromising quality
Ability to scale teams up
and down instantly

11. How the Marketing team raises
the bar on what is possible
Increased agility
and innovation 900+
multichannel assets
created in a quarter

12. ● When you aren’t burdened
with ‘how’ work gets done, you
have the freedom to question
what’s possible

13. HOW FORWARD-THINKING
COMPANIES DO THIS

14. Our winning strategy Extraordinary talent isn’t
restricted by geography
Extraordinary teams aren’t
homogenous
Independent talent should be
at the heart of every business,
including ours
Our talent philosophy

15. Only FTEs
in my region
From: To:
Anyone who
has the skills
anywhere

16. From: To:
Only
onboarding
FTEs
Onboarding
every member
of the team
(accommodate, assimilate, accelerate)

17. From: To:
Meetings for
everything
Asynchronous
work

18. Happy hours Virtual and
in-person team
building
From: To:

19. Face time Outputs and
Impact
From: To:

20. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—1968
Esteem Needs
Self-
Actualization
Safety Needs
Belongingness
& Love Needs
Physiological
Needs

21. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—2021
Self-Actualization
Esteem Needs
Belongingness
& Love Needs
Wifi
Battery
Face mask
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs

22. Organizations’ hierarchy of needs
Strategic:
Prevent disruption from
happening and
guarantee you’ll hit OKRs
Transactional:
Rescue work in jeopardy
and stabilize disrupted
business
Organizational Actualization:
Reimagine what’s possible and
transform your organization

23. ● “It’s a profound moment when you realize
there is a freelancer somewhere in the world
who can make whatever you’re dreaming up a
reality; it fundamentally changes how you
work and makes the impossible possible.”
– Kevin Scott, head of technology at the PGA of America

24. 1 Don’t waste a good crisis—reimagine what
is possible
Takeaways
2 WHO we work with is much more
transformative than WHERE we work
3 Not all freelancers are “gig workers”—many are
highly skilled professionals
4 Measure productivity on outputs, not face time
5 With this new work model, the benefits
are profound—the impossible is possible!

25. THANK YOU