Designing bulk hiring in Work App

Bulk hiring allows clients to onboard and pay hundreds of people simultaneously. We brought that entire workflow onto a smartphone screen.

The Work App is a freelance platform that allows clients to seamlessly source and hire hundreds of verified remote workers simultaneously instead of just a few. Bulk hiring is the core, differentiating feature of the application, designed to manage everything from initial matching to global on-chain payment inside a single flow. Fitting an interface capable of coordinating a massive global workforce into a few square inches of a smartphone screen was our ultimate design challenge.

Say you need 100 real humans to test and provide feedback on a mobile app. It is unimaginable logistical nightmare to try to pull that crowd together, to manage their progress, to verify their submissions, and to handle individual payouts. We designed bulk-hiring feature in Work to handle that entire process with ease and, at real scale.

Once a job is posted and applications roll in, the client can skip the slow, manual process of wading through a massive queue one by one. By applying advanced filters, they can instantly slice the list by specific criteria — like matching a target timezone, filtering for a 4.5-star reputation or isolating a specific country. From there, on-demand mass actions allow them to select that entire batch and hire or deny dozens of freelancers simultaneously.

The moment that mass action is executed, three things happen in parallel: the selected workers are notified to begin, project funds are securely placed in escrow, and everyone receives a custom onboarding message with their instruction details. From there, freelancers can converse with the client as needed, submit deliverables through structured review steps, and receive immediate payouts the moment their work is approved.

In practice we regularly see hundreds of applicants per job (there is no shortage of labor force on Work). This puts the client in a powerful position when it comes to selecting the best workers for the job — but only if they have the tools optimized for scale. We designed an interface that prioritizes extreme space efficiency and quick reduction.

Bulk-selection & actions

The list of applicants is designed for dense, high-speed triage, giving clients the visual information needed to execute mass actions without second-guessing. The ultra-space-efficient row layout highlights only the essential data points required for a split-second evaluation: the applicant’s bid amount, star rating, country and verified badge.

Instead of forcing a client to approve hires one by one, the layout introduces multi-select checkboxes directly into the list view. By pairing rapid visual indicators with bulk-selection tools, a client can scan a hundred applicants, check the target boxes and execute a mass batch-hire in a single tap.

Powerful filtering

To make even better use of high-density grid space, clients can instantly narrow large candidate pools down by operational parameters like country, local time zones, freelancer rating and more. Rather than manually combing through profiles one by one, these filters isolate optimal segments in seconds, ensuring that multi-select macro-actions are applied only to the most relevant candidates.

Drilling down

When a user needs deeper context, tapping a freelancer’s avatar & name slides open their profile for more detail. The client also has the option to message and converse with the applicant directly, clearing up specific project details or negotiating terms before officially extending a hire.

After the initial launch we quickly discovered a need for improved clarity around job instructions. A job description works fine for attracting applicants, but it often doesn’t have enough detail to actually guide a freelancer through a task or requires to be customized for groups of freelancers (e.g. based on their country).

We also found that some freelancers would begin the task immediately upon being hired, completing their work based solely on the short job post description. Then they would request payment, while the client had not yet filled them in on all the relevant details. At the same time the client had the burden of messaging every freelancer that they hired, which could be many. We needed to design better communication into the hiring process.

Mass messaging

To solve this, we built a bulk messaging feature that runs right alongside individual direct message threads. When confirming a bulk hire, the client can draft a single set of onboarding instructions that instantly delivers to every selected freelancer the moment they are accepted. Because this tool is integrated directly into the multi-select functionality of the job page, clients can use it across the applied tab to broadcast pre-hire updates or expectations and the hired tab to rapidly share live course-corrections, milestones or deliverable reminders to their active workforce simultaneously.

While clear instructions improved project kick-off, we noticed similar communication strain surrounding the final handoff process. The obvious gap was how to collect deliverables from many workers in a predictable format without having to manually explain expectations 100 separate times. Embedding structured job review steps directly into the workflow solves this, creating a clean, visual tracking system where a freelancer’s progress is instantly pushed to the surface.

Creating job review steps

Setting a high-volume client up for success requires capturing exactly what needs to be delivered before the work even begins. Integrating customizable review steps directly into the creation flow allows clients to define these milestones in their own words. Each step prompts the freelancer for a specific deliverable in a clear, predictable format, establishing an objective criteria for completion. The system supports flexible, task-specific requirements depending on the objective like a text field, link or specific file upload.

Freelancer completion

On the worker side, these steps are translated into a linear, checklist-driven interface directly within their active job view. Freelancers can upload files, input text or submit media links step-by-step, ensuring no deliverables are missed. Because the system enforces the client’s preferred formatting parameters upfront, workers are protected from arbitrary rejections or unclear expectations.

Client review

Completing all required steps automatically triggers a client notification, consolidating the delivered work into a focused verification view. From here, clients can instantly approve the submission or issue a structured revision request. If a revision is required, the freelancer is immediately notified and guided to resubmit within the same interface, ensuring payouts only happen once the agreed-upon deliverables are fully verified.

While manual bulk filtering and one-tap selection drastically optimize workforce management, the physical limits of a smartphone screen push against the demands of true macroeconomic scale. If a client can manually filter and hire dozens of workers on a phone in a few clicks, the next systemic milestone is automation: offloading the heavy lifting entirely to the platform.

This led to the design of auto-hiring — a feature that allows clients to establish strict criteria guardrails and let the platform securely orchestrate recruitment in the background with minimal human intervention. A deep dive into automated bulk workflows will be covered in the next case study.