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

[mitchell-jason]

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! 

[matthewsjdw]

It seems a bit strange to me, because all other my parents projects have a positive feedback and this seems to be the only negative point in my profile. Is it possible to check somehow if this affects my rating or no ?

[VladimirG]

Hi AHM,

Thanks for the question. Freelancers are no longer negatively impacted for not receiving feedback on their contracts, even if such contracts constitute a pattern. That means that if you close all of the open contracts you mentioned and your clients do not provide feedback within the 14-day period, they won't affect your score negatively. However, if some of your clients do provide feedback, those contracts will be included in your score's calculation.

[arsalank298]

Thank you Upwork, I am also looking forward to this. Hope we all will be entertained soon.

[anastasasiyal]

Happy to hear that! Sometimes clients just do not like to leave feedbacks, especially when you delivered everything on time and succesfully completed the project. But I have noticed it is usually those clients who are new to Upwork and they need only one project to be done. 

[mvm777]

Jason, the score also is based on the 12-month projects completed. On Elance, I had a 98% score. On Upwork, I now have 56% due to a lack of business done due to an injury. It should be based on my historical recommendations which are usually 4.8 to 5 Stars. This method of scoring is for how much money I make for Upwork, not the quality of my overall work for clients.

[anastasasiyal]

If I have to work with fixed prices I prefer misltones. I split the job in 3-4 parts. So, I  make sure I get paid for each part and I am not starting on new milstone untill they approve, also, I put water marks on my work, after they approve the milsotnes I sent the files. It works for me, I am 3d rendering specialsit.

Also, before starting any job(especially with fixed price) I look at the client feedbacks form other freelancers. 

I think misltones will help you to secure your money better. Rather than you did all work and cleint didnt pay. I would never start work on the next milstone untill previous is fully paid off. 

[anastasasiyal]

Fully agree with you! I would rather do misltones then one fixed price. 

[filip_knezevic]

Mark, quantity of work has anything to do with JSS.

12 months that you mentioned is something else. It means that JSS is evaluated per average score during 6, 12 and 24 months and the best score wins. So if you had 10 in 12 months, 9 perfect jobs and  one horrible outcome, it would be the same as if you had 100 jobs in 12 months, with 90 perfect jobs and 10 horrible ones.

[filip_knezevic]

Can we hear from anybody who benefited from this change? 🙂

In other words, did somebody's score went up after this change?

[kfids]

Thank you! My JSS was shattered when a client who was extremely happy with my work did not leave feedback. Months later, I was finally able to get him to leave feedback, but I was unable to secure any work at all during the time period where my success score was tanked. It felt incredibly unfair and I'm glad to see you are fixing this.