No feedback contracts no longer impact Job Success Score (JSS)

mitchell-jason · ‎10-21-2020

I am excited to announce a new change to the Job Success Score (JSS). We know that JSS is a hot topic. This post aims to provide transparency into the changes and answer any questions you might have.

On November 8th, 2020, we updated the JSS calculation process to exclude contracts that ended without feedback. Before, if a freelancer or agency had a large number of contracts that ended without feedback, those contracts could have negatively impacted their JSS.

What is JSS?

Your JSS measures and reflects your Upwork clients’ satisfaction with the projects you complete for them. You can view your score on your My Stats page and learn more about JSS here.

What does this mean?

We removed projects where clients didn't leave feedback from consideration in the JSS calculation in November. This means that it will no longer negatively impact your JSS if a client does not leave feedback at the end of a project. Note that, as a result of this change, a small set of professionals no longer had enough outcomes with different clients to earn a JSS. To minimize this impact, we reduced the minimum number of distinct clients required to earn a JSS from 3 to 2.

What’s the problem with including contracts that end without feedback in the JSS calculation?

Picture a contract where a professional and a client work together, and at the end of it, the client does not leave feedback. Before the change, if the professional already had a high percentage of completed contracts without feedback, the professional’s JSS could have been negatively affected.

The original design was based on a study that found clients who had negative experiences would often avoid filling out the feedback form altogether instead of giving negative reviews. More recent analysis suggests this may no longer be true. As a result, we are changing the calculation to reflect today’s reality.

How does this change affect you?

If you had contracts before the change where a client did not leave feedback counting against your JSS, you may notice a boost in your score from this change.
If you do not have sufficient outcomes from at least 2 distinct clients, you may no longer meet the threshold for JSS, and you may see your JSS go away. Getting more jobs can help minimize this impact.

What’s next?

This is just one of several changes we’re planning to implement in the coming months, so stay tuned!

This post itself is in response to your feedback that you want to be informed when changes are made. Thanks to everyone who has offered feedback on JSS communication through our customer surveys and social media, through the Upwork Community, and directly to our team. Be on the lookout for more changes to JSS and other aspects of the Upwork experience in the near future.

We are all looking forward to this next chapter together!

amrin_raty_2017 · ‎11-03-2020

No feedback contracts have a negative impact on JSS, but I heard Upwork is changing their policy!

I want to know regarding the issue!

BojanS · ‎11-03-2020

Hi Amrin,

I've merged your post with this thread where this change was announced so that you can look into it. Feel free to reach back to us with any additional questions you might have.

Thank you!

wlyonsatl · ‎11-03-2020

Hi, Goran.

Did this new policy take effect November 1st? I haven't seen a specific date mentioned.

david-dellaccio · ‎11-03-2020

Hi Jason,

I lost my Top Rated / Top Rated Plus status due to a few completed projects with no feedback that lowered my JJS score. Now my JSS is 100%, will my Top Rated status be reinstated?

It's very unfair to lose Top Rated and have to wait weeks to be elegible again.

Thanks,

David

BojanS · ‎11-03-2020

Hi Will,

Thank you for this question. The change hasn't taken effect yet. We plan to release it later this month and will announce once it's completed.

ionutd · ‎11-04-2020

We know it's November but is there an actual date we should expect this change to occur?

r_sommella · ‎11-04-2020

Hi Jason

I noticed that my Job Success Score is 88% (!). I wondered how it could be since those few jobs that I have taken here on the platform, all went pretty well and ended with very happy clients.

The culprit seems a gig which I've always thought would have never counted towards JSS, given it was interrupted by the client and left open for two years before giving back a bad score. What happened, in fact, is that that person decided to give the project to one of his friends because he had to reshoot some additional footage and although admitted the good quality of my edit was looking for something different.
It would be quite ironical, honestly, that a job that had been quite a nightmare, and barely paid, would also affect so negatively my JSS.

Is there a way to fix this? Do you know how to get in touch with support (I have noticed that it's quite hard to get in touch with some support which is not just a bot)? Please, don't tell me that can be fixed through more jobs. It took a long time and numerous underpaid jobs to build a good reputation. And a score of JSS of 90% is fundamental for the level of work I look for.

If you could help with this matter, or at least help me get in touch with someone who can, that would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

RS
Thx

elenadavid · ‎11-05-2020

I contacted Upwork Support to know about my profile rate decrease due to lack of feedback, and I was very disappointed with the answer: “If an excessive number of your contracts have no feedback it can affect your score. This is because lack of feedback typically indicates your clients were not completely satisfied with your work.”

It's very complicate to assume that “lack of feedback typically indicates your clients were not completely satisfied with your work”, it does not make any sense and does not seem fair to Freelancers workers since a lot of clients who did not provide feedback contracted me again.

I always work hard to provide good quality jobs and I'm very disappointed. I had a 95% rate of job success, and now it's 76%, and the only reason that I could conclude was lack of feedback, something that I cannot control. Now I remember three clients that contract me more than once, and did not send feedback at all.

Also, I ended some contracts that were open because clients were asking about my availability since they had seen my open contracts in the time. So, as the clients managing those open contracts were not answering or even closing them, I thought it would be okay to do so. But, for my surprise, this also affects my Profile rate. It is not fair with freelancers workers either!

elenadavid · ‎11-05-2020

I would like to know too!

ellen_parker · ‎11-05-2020

Thank god you are finally doing something about this. It's a major problem at the moment. When will this start?

Are you also going to address the issue of smaller projects affecting JSS?

I understand larger projects would affect the JSS more, but freelancers who take smaller projects should not be penalised, purely for taking on a smaller job.