Upwork Recognized as Market Leader in Ardent Partners 2021 Digital Staffing Marketplaces Technology Advisor Report

Leading analyst report highlights industry’s largest talent network, marketplace talent quality, and flexibility and scale of Upwork Enterprise solutions and services

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK), the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent, today announced that the company has been selected as a Market Leader in the 2021 Digital Staffing Marketplaces Technology Advisor report from notable contingent workforce management, talent management, and staffing analyst firm Ardent Partners.

According to the report: “Utilization of digital and on-demand staffing technology solutions has increased more than 700 percent since 2015. As we proceed through a global pandemic, an uncertain corporate landscape has placed a premium on finding solutions that can drive alignment between dynamic enterprise requirements and available, vetted, and skilled talent. Enter ‘digital staffing marketplaces’ that can enable hiring managers to tap into talent pools and on-demand talent networks while also supporting direct sourcing initiatives.”

The Digital Staffing Marketplaces Technology Advisor report is designed to help procurement, HR, human capital and talent acquisition executives navigate the digital recruitment and talent marketplace landscape, and this year evaluated 12 digital staffing marketplaces against both solution strength and provider strength criteria. Market Leaders are providers with universal strength across their offering matched with an ability to execute at the highest level.

Upwork’s position as a Market Leader is based on Ardent Partners’ assessment of its usability, solution functionality, completeness of offering, future solution strategy, technology adoption, company presence and ability to execute, as well as company focus and vision. Specifically, the report points to Upwork’s industry-leading talent network, powerful end-to-end workforce program management platform and Upwork Enterprise solution that offers robust compliance and risk mitigation.

“Upwork has long been a household name in the digital staffing industry due to its mature offerings and longstanding strengths in providing businesses with real-time access to talent,” said report author Christopher J. Dwyer, Senior Vice President of Research at Ardent Partners and Managing Director of the Future of Work Exchange. “In addition to a powerful end-to-end workforce management solution, Upwork is an industry-leading ‘work marketplace’ that enables enterprises with a truly agile workforce.”

“We see Ardent Partners’ selection of Upwork as a Market Leader as clear validation of our ability to serve customers on both sides of our work marketplace,” said Upwork Senior Vice President of Enterprise Eric Gilpin. “As the report mentions, ‘Upwork is synonymous with digital and on-demand staffing due to the longstanding breadth of [our] platform and marketplace solutions,’ and we look forward to continuing to expand our vision, solution offerings and services to create value and scale for businesses and independent talent alike.”

The recognition follows Upwork’s launch of Talent Scout™, which connects organizations with pre-vetted expert talent selected from the Upwork platform by specialized Upwork recruiters, as well as enhancements to the Upwork Enterprise offering and the company’s introduction of the work marketplace category.

To learn more and to read the full Ardent Partners 2021 Digital Staffing Marketplaces Technology Advisor report, visit: https://www.upwork.com/mc/documents/Ardent-Partners2021-Digital-Staffing-Marketplaces-Technology-Advisor.pdf.

About Upwork

Upwork is the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent. We serve everyone from one-person startups to 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and freelancers to work together in new ways that unlock their potential. Our talent community earned over $2.3 billion on Upwork in 2020 across more than 10,000 skills, including website & app development, creative & design, customer support, finance & accounting, consulting, and operations. Learn more at www.upwork.com and join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Ardent Partners

Ardent Partners is a research and advisory firm focused on defining and advancing the supply management strategies, processes, and technologies that drive business value and accelerate organizational transformation within the enterprise.

Ardent Partners actively covers the supply management solutions marketplace and produces research to help business decision-makers understand the technology landscape and identify the best-fit solution(s) for their specific needs. We believe our team’s first-hand experience evaluating, developing, packaging, deploying, and using supply management solutions on behalf of enterprises in the Global 2000 and public sector makes us eminently qualified to advise our clients to make smart decisions in this area.