Key takeaways
Everest Group has named Lifted, an Upwork company, a Leader in its Contractor of Record (CoR) and Contingent Employer of Record (CEoR) Solutions PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026, our second Everest Group recognition since launching in August 2025.
Lifted runs both CoR (compliant contractor engagement) and CEoR (formal employment of contingent workers) from one platform, so enterprise programs don't need a separate vendor for each, and it plugs into the VMS or MSP already in place.
Lifted, an Upwork company, has been named a Leader in Everest Group’s Contractor of Record (CoR) and Contingent Employer of Record (CEoR) Solutions PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026.
This is our second Everest Group recognition since Lifted’s launch in August 2025, following our Leader and Star Performer placement in the Freelancer Engagement and Management System (FEMS) PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026, and it speaks directly to the part of our platform enterprises rely on most: engaging contingent talent compliantly, whatever form that engagement needs to take.
What does it mean to be named a Leader in Everest Group's PEAK Matrix® for CoR and CEoR?
Everest Group's PEAK Matrix assessments score providers on Market Impact and Vision and Capability, including a technology capability subdimension that measures how much of the classification, contracting, and payment work a platform automates versus leaves to manual process. Everest Group evaluated providers across both, and Lifted was named a Leader in the combined assessment. In practice, that means less time spent explaining a role's classification to a vendor and faster starts once a match is made.
For Lifted, being named a Leader across both CoR and CEoR categories puts us among a small group of providers Everest Group considers strong enough to run both compliance models at the same level, rather than specializing in just one.
How are CoR and CEoR different from AOR and EOR in this PEAK Matrix®?
CoR is the category where Agent of Record (AOR) providers operate, compliantly engaging independent contractors for the enterprise where engagements qualify for that classification, rather than as employees. CEoR is the category where Employer of Record (EOR) providers operate, formally employing a contingent worker on the client's behalf when the work needs to be classified as employment rather than as an independent contractor.
This is also the first year Everest Group has evaluated Contractor of Record and Contingent Employer of Record as a single, combined category, having run Employer of Record Solutions as its own standalone assessment in prior years. Combining them signals that the market is starting to expect the strongest providers to be capable of both, giving enterprises the option to consolidate their contingent workforce needs with a single vendor instead of managing one for each category.
Currently, most providers are built for one path only, so when an engagement status changes, that often means routing the worker to a second contingent workforce vendor, at a different speed, with a different compliance process. Because both run through the same Lifted platform, an enterprise doesn't have to route contractor engagements through one vendor and contingent employment through another. Lifted moves the worker between the two paths as the engagement requires.
“Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between moving quickly and managing contingent talent compliantly. They need the flexibility to engage the right person, in the right way, anywhere in the world, while maintaining visibility and control across their workforce program. Being recognized as a Leader in this assessment validates the approach we’ve taken with Lifted and, more importantly, the value it creates for our customers to engage talent through our Agent of Record (AOR) and Employer of Record (EOR) solutions.”
Ernesto Lamaina
General Manager (GM) at Lifted, an Upwork Company
The full report is available here.
Why enterprises choose Lifted for Contractor of Record (CoR)
The Lifted CoR solution (often used interchangeably as Agent of Record, or AOR), compliantly engages independent contractors (or better known as freelancers) and indemnifies the enterprise company against classification risk. Before an engagement starts, Lifted classifies the independent contractor based on its region or country, handles the contracting and payments throughout, and gives enterprises an audit trail that holds up if a worker's status is ever questioned, replacing self managed ad-hoc independent contractor engagements with a standardized, repeatable engagement flow.
Classification, backed by experts:
Lifted classifies, contracts, and pays independent contractors through one agent of record model, backed by 20,000+ worker classifications a year across 180+ countries. Classification decisions are assessed against local law and expert review, and clients are indemnified against misclassification claims, and with our clear, well designed audit trails if a contractor's status is ever challenged, there's already a documented record and built-in protection behind it. Managed by a team of compliance experts.
Real-time visibility and program control:
Lifted’s Agent of Record (CoR) solution is built specifically for enterprise companies looking to take control of their contingent workforce independent contractors spend and population. We provide you with real time visibility into your independent contractor population, spend, projects and classification status.
One solution for every engagement type:
Regardless of the outcome of the classification, Lifted can provide you with any type of contingent workforce engagement. This means you no longer have to switch between vendors when your talent gets classified as an independent contractor or needs to be engaged under an Employer of Record status. This drastically reduces hiring friction, cuts costs for enterprise companies typically by 10-30% and shortens time to hire. This is why 25,000 hiring managers use Lifted’s engagement solutions today.
Payments and workflow, in one system we manage on your behalf:
Lifted pays contractors in local currency across a footprint of 180+ countries, handles U.S. tax forms electronically, and gives Finance a full, compliant trail instead of untracked, rogue payments. Onboarding runs on the same standardized contracts and documentation every time, with approvals routed across Legal, Procurement, and Ops automatically, replacing ad-hoc SOWs with a repeatable process.
Curious how Lifted handles global contractor payments? Explore our Agent of Record solution.
Why enterprises choose Lifted for Contingent Employer of Record (CEoR)
On the CEoR side, also known as Employer of Record (or EOR), Lifted facilitates the employment relationship for contingent workers who need to be employed rather than classified as contractors, handling payroll, tax, and benefits administration in every market, with no local entity required.
Fast, compliant onboarding:
Onboarding averages 1.3 days in the US, with 77% of US workers onboarded in under a day. Every contract comes with country-specific benefits, holidays, and entitlements already built in, so new hires start with a fully compliant, localized employment relationship from day one.
Global reach, without new entities:
Lifted supports employment of contingent workers in 180+ countries, so you can hire wherever the work is without creating a foreign entity or building local employment infrastructure yourself. Every engagement is backed by contractual indemnification under Lifted's compliance model, and employment policies are kept current as local law changes, so the audit-ready record stays current without you or your team owning that upkeep.
Built for however the search starts:
Whether you already have someone in mind for the role or need Lifted to find them through staff augmentation, EOR draws on our live database of 18M+ professionals, with instant shortlisting and an average time-to-fill under three days when a new search is needed. Either way, the worker is employed compliantly from day one.
One solution for every engagement type:
Lifted can support any type of contingent workforce engagement. When your talent gets classified as an independent contractor or needs to be engaged through an Employer of Record, you don’t have to switch vendors. With this setup, enterprises generally see less hiring friction, faster time to hire, and cost savings typically between 10% and 30%. It’s why 25,000 hiring managers rely on Lifted’s solutions today.
Get the details on Lifted's Contingent Employer of Record approach.
Author
Lee Willoughby is the Senior Marketing Director at Lifted, an Upwork company helping enterprises source, engage, and manage contingent talent across every contract type. With a background as a co-founder and workforce technology entrepreneur, Lee focuses on the future of contingent workforce management, helping organizations navigate the complexities of global talent, compliance, and workforce transformation.
