Today that is no longer the case.
Moreover, for many companies work is one-off or on an as-needed basis. Companies are willing to pay a premium to access a top rated freelance designer or copywriter on Upwork versus hiring them full-time.
The reality is that most companies have not heard of Upwork, and many highly talented freelancers have never been on the network.
Additionally on LinkedIn it takes an average time of 30 days to hire an executive, whereas on Upwork it takes less than 1 day to hire a freelancer. Imagine if all executives on LinkedIn, whether full-time employed or between jobs, had the ability to access Upwork automatically to supplement their incomes. The ability for businesses on LinkedIn to automatically hire freelancers would be exceptionally powerful, and would assuredly create a new, highly viable source of revenue for both Microsoft and Upwork.
Microsoft and Upwork entered a formal partnership last month. Upwork’s CEO, Stephane Kasriel, said that Upwork doesn’t plan similar deals with Microsoft competitors like Google’s G Suite workplace software or Slack.
