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Page updated:
3 April 2000

Page owner:
ETO Site Team

This is one of a cluster of FAQs about Finding Work and Finding Skilled People on the Internet The right hand menu guides you through this cluster To date we have found only one site we are able to recommend. If you have good experience with other sites please let us know - you can "add a site" from the page that lists all the sites we have investigated to date, or you can "add your comments" (positive or negative) about particular sites. In selecting sites that we believe may be useful for teleworkers we used the following criteria: There must be evidence that the service has delivered results. This may be through evidence we can deduce from the site itself, or feedback we receive from users. There should be no up-front fee to job-seekers or work-seekers, unless there is clear evidence that the service takes active steps to find work for the seeker. Generally we would expect services to gain their income from results delivered rather than from promises made. There should be clear and specific provision for teleworking/telecommuting to be specified by employers or customers. Some sites do have some teleworkable jobs, but if these are hidden among tens of thousands of other opportunities the service is not really helping the teleworker.

Finding work, finding telework   and finding skilled people   Online services for finding work: introduction and overview    Should I be a teleworker? Can I find work? Pricing your skills Marketing your services    Finding a (teleworking) job online List of sites/services Tested and Selected services (this page) Other FAQs Home page

We have also paid more attention to sites that are either based in Europe or that provide clear evidence of support to non-USA employers and job-seekers. Sites that are dominantly USA-centric are not really helping to develop teleworking opportunities. Desriably, services should either be either location-transparent, or should state clearly their geographic orientation. A site that lists all USA States and leaves the rest of the world to a single category, "other" is telling us that it is only interested in the USA market.

Our selections of site for finding work as a teleworker

Number one choice: smarterwork.com

1. They have obviously put a lot of thought into designing the mechanism so that clients and experts can meet and negotiate a deal with a miminum of overhead effort. This means that a client can start with a fairly modest, low value, early completion project, allowing the experts to show their capabilities with a minimum of risk.
2. They take care of the financial transaction, guaranteeing payment providing that the task is completed to a satisfactory standard. This too makes it easier and safer for a client and an expert to work together for the first time.
3. The service appears to be location-independent. The current service was originally announced as a "UK" service but quickly became re-labelled as their "English language" service. Payments are made by bank transfer to the expert's account.
4. Financials are handled by a trusted third party. Client payments are held in escrow by a named bank and paid by the bank to the expert on satisfactory completion.
5. It is easy to see what is going on. Lists of available projects are publicly visible; registered experts get to see the detail.
6. There is evidence of success. By the time of the formal launch in March 2000, smarterwork.com claimed that more than 200 projects had been completed and billed. Internal evidence from reviewing the project lists suggests that this is true. We are urging smarterwork.com to post some service statistics.
7. There is an arbitration arrangement. If either the client or the expert has a problem with the way a project is going, or how well it was completed, smarterwork.com appoints an independent moderator who will seek to settle the problem.
8. Some effort has been made to assure the competence of "experts", who have to take an online test in their specialist field(s) before being allowed to bid for projects.
9. They seem open to suggestions - several comments we made when reviewing the site have been taken up and acted on.
10. They are open about who owns the service, how to contact them, where they are based. Many sites raise needless suspicions by failing to disclose this information.

Of course, no system is perfect and one can identify issues with the smarterwork.com service. Many of the early projects have been very small in scope (and so low in value). Perhaps this is because clients are testing the water before they jump in with more substantial tasks, or perhaps small, quickly completed tasks is to be expected with such a service and will be the norm. Another question is the open bidding process. If clients were to award projects purely on price then the service would become unattractive to experts who prefer to do a top quality job, but need to charge accordingly.

These quibbles notwithstanding, smarterwork.com is a very welcome addition to the teleworking scene; it looks better than its nearest USA-based rivals and if it succeeds could make quite an impact - for example allowing skilled people in areas of high unemployment and few job opportunities to meet and work with companies in areas where employment levels are high and employers have problems recruiting skilled people locally.

Have you used the smarterwork.com service? Let us know about your experiences.

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Number two choice?

The Swiss (mainly German language) site, Telework Unlimited shows promise and we would welcome comments from anyone who has looked closely at the process here and can let us know what success it provides. You can report very easily by clicking on the "Add your own comments about this programme" link associated with a site in the main site listings page.

You can also propose a new site we have not yet listed, click here to make a new recommendation.