IT Staffing Report: May 14, 2015

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Elance-oDesk launches new platform, name

Online staffing provider Elance-oDesk relaunched as Upwork. The move includes a new freelance talent platform.

“Upwork’s launch signals a new chapter of work in which people are able to hire quality talent — regardless of where the professional happens to be — in minutes,” CEO Stephane Kasriel said. “Freelancers were already earning $1 billion annually via Elance-oDesk — I predict they will earn $10 billion annually via Upwork within six years.”

Elance-oDesk ranked on last year’s list of the largest US staffing and talent engagement firms produced by Staffing Industry Analysts. And the firm ranks among the largest of online staffing platforms.

Upwork’s new platform will include: Tools to allow for faster hiring that include enhanced matching algorithms; a new work status allowing freelancers to set their availability as “right away,” “later” or “not looking.” And a new mobile app from which it’s possible to post jobs, submit proposals, review applicants and contract on the fly. A new real-time group collaboration tool that is free and available to anyone on the Web. Upwork aims to allows companies to hire within three days where it traditionally took around three weeks, according to the company. Within a year, it anticipates hiring within minutes will be possible.

“Elance-oDesk is the largest online staffing platform in the world, and this announcement demonstrates the rapid rate of change and innovation in this space for companies of all sizes,” said David Francis, research associate at Staffing Industry Analysts. “With a new CEO just announced and a new unified platform that has refocused itself on online work arrangements/workers, Upwork certainly appears poised to take advantage of the technology-enabled structural shift we’ve been seeing towards alternative work arrangements of various kinds — shifts that in many ways were paved by the predecessors to UpWork, Elance and oDesk themselves — and the newly announced tools should make it easier than ever for companies to capitalize on and engage remote/online workers.”

Kasriel recently took over the CEO position, and the company reports many of the 300-plus engineers, designers and programmers working on the relaunch came from its own platform.

“This chapter will deliver the increased opportunity that comes with less job market friction to both clients and independent professionals,” Kasriel said. “We are a company that will be around in 100 years.”