Job size will now be factored into your JSS

[Jennifer M]

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Andrew R wrote:

What Upwork should be doing is allowing clients with very long running and high-volume contracts the ability to provide reviews and feedback every month or every quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4), instead of having to close a contract completely to leave a review. Upwork has vested interest financially in folks like me working with very long-term clients with the Upwork platform as the intermediary. Almost like an employee. They are now incentivizing contractors to engage in opening/closing/opening/closing contracts for the sake of upping the JSS, which puts awkwardness on client relationships. Why they haven’t addressed this issue years ago is beyond me… It should be a no-brainer.

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They do. Longterm contracts count positively towards your JSS. If you're getting paid regularly every week or month, it helps. You don't need to close/re-open a contract. Just leave it open and keep earning. I've found these contracts are better than just having 1 contract that turned out well.

[Andrew R]

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you very much for your thoughts and comments. Though I don't believe your comments are correct. It is my understanding that the success/outcome of any given project or contract through Upwork is only counted towards the JSS once the contract has been completed, closed, and the client has the ability to leave a review and rating. I have several long-running contracts with my largest clients, none of whom I have yet closed a contract with allowing them to leave a review.

I would be very surprised if these open contracts are currently being counted towards the JSS without a contract closure and review. I was sent an email the morning stating my current JSS will go down in March with the new algo. I currently have open contracts with six-figure tallies on this platform. If your comments are correct Jennifer and my open contracts are currently being counted towards the JSS, and with this new algo Upwork will be weighting longer/higher-volume contracts with higher importance, than my JSS would have to INCREASE; mathematically it couldn’t decrease. So the email I received this morning about a score decrease would make little sense in this case?

I would actually like someone directly from Upwork to chime-in here if they can? Are open long-term contracts without a review or contract closure yet established being counted towards the JSS?

Thanks you.

- Andrew

[Valeria K]

Hi Andrew,

I can confirm the information Jennifer shared. Long-term relationships are a plus and can help boost Job Success score while not having them won't count against it. That will continue to be true.

[Andrew R]

Hello Valeria,

Thank you for the reply, much appreciated. Though I'm a bit confused. I received the email stating my JSS would go down. Based on the information you've provided, that would have to be mathematically impossible. My current open contracts with clients who have not yet had the opportunity to leave a review acount for 95% of the revenue I've generated on your platform, and I've generated in the 6-figures. From the information you're telling me, these contracts would be weighted more heavily with the new algo. Mathematically my JSS could only increase in that case... I'm a Harvard doctoral trained Statistician by the way, so I kind of know the math

Can you please explain what I'm possibly missing here? We can take this offline if you would like. Is there a way I can message you?

[Valeria K]

Andrew,

The way long-term relationships weigh more in Job Success score isn't changing with the new change we're announcing here. They will continue benefiting the score in the same way and you can find more information on what relationships are considered long-term in this help article.

Additionally, client's feedback as well as excessive lack of feedback will continue being used to calculate the score. With this new change a job with higher earnings will impact Job Success Score (JSS) more than a smaller job. Depending on the outcome of the job, that impact may be positive or negative.
Unfortunately we cannot share specific details about how your score will be affected or about the effect of specific contracts on your score.

[Miriam H]

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Valeria K wrote:

Hi Andrew,

I can confirm the information Jennifer shared. Long-term relationships are a plus and can help boost Job Success score while not having them won't count against it. That will continue to be true.

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To confirm, even if the client has never closed a contract with the FL, as is the case for some of Andrew's clients, this is still factored into the "long term" relationships? 

[Vladimir G]

Hi Miriam,

There are a few additional factors that affect the outcome of a contract apart from receiving feedback. Not addressing specific contracts Andrew mentioned, as Valeria shared this hasn't changed and longer-term relationships are a plus.

[Anna T]

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Jennifer M wrote:They do. Longterm contracts count positively towards your JSS. If you're getting paid regularly every week or month, it helps. You don't need to close/re-open a contract. Just leave it open and keep earning. I've found these contracts are better than just having 1 contract that turned out well.

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Interesting.  I did not know this.  

But what happens if the long term contract is open and you're not getting paid?  I ask because I have a few of them; two of which I haven't heard from in over a year.  It's been said that an open contract does not hurt the JSS as long as something was paid.  Will this still be true?

[Jennifer M]

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Anna T wrote:

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Jennifer M wrote:They do. Longterm contracts count positively towards your JSS. If you're getting paid regularly every week or month, it helps. You don't need to close/re-open a contract. Just leave it open and keep earning. I've found these contracts are better than just having 1 contract that turned out well.

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Interesting.  I did not know this.  

But what happens if the long term contract is open and you're not getting paid?  I ask because I have a few of them; two of which I haven't heard from in over a year.  It's been said that an open contract does not hurt the JSS as long as something was paid.  Will this still be true?

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Well, I don't know the secret JSS calculations But I will say that they don't hurt or harm if they go dormant. I eventually close them if they go dormant. I have only one that is weekly, but last year I had the same client hiring me every month and then another client adding milestones every few weeks. Those contracts helped too.

[Wes C]

This makes a lot of sense, and I see it as a good change. Thank you!