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!

kaipark · ‎12-27-2020

Currently, I have 9 contracts in progress, only three of which are active.

I haven't ended the other six contracts myself just in case the client sends me an additional offer.

Can these inactive contracts affect my profile in a negative way if I leave them untreated for a long time?

AleksandarD · ‎12-28-2020

Hi Kai,

Keeping contracts with no recent activity open should not affect your score negatively. That said, if you have contracts that are still open but no further work needs to be done, you can consider asking your clients to close them or go ahead and close them yourself. Please note that when you close a contract, the client is notified and will have 14 days to provide their feedback on the contract. If no feedback is provided on the contract by them, it will not have an impact on your score.

Feel free to check out this help article to learn more about your Job Success Score.

Thank you.

abinadab-agbo · ‎12-28-2020

Flavio A wrote:
Hi Petra,

Sorry for changing the subject a bit, but would you help me trying to understand this?

I have recently had my JSS drop down from 98% to 88%. It happened due to a client who cancelled a contract less than 48h after it had been created, which means no work had been done nor payments processed. Before cancelling the contract, he sent me lots of messages (which were directed to me, but also to many other freelancers he had hired at the same time). He kept saying that Upwork wasn't allowing him to use his account due to his own misuses, so he would have to cancel the contracts and set them again through a different account.

Ultimately, he cancelled my contract (and I suppose everyone else's, and his account seemed to be deleted) and sent me a request to release the money on escrow, which I accepted. A few days later, they invited me to send a proposal through a different account, but never replied to my messages. Then, on Sunday, my JSS dropped to 88% and I lost my Top Rated badge. Does that make sense? I mean, I thought this wasn't supposed to impact on my JSS. Is there anything I can do now? If I knew this was going to happen, I could have used my Top Rated power to delete that from my JSS, but now I've lost it.

You can use your perk within 2 weeks after you lost the badge.

flavioaguilar · ‎12-29-2020

Hi Abinadab,

Thanks for this information. I had no idea I could still use this perk for two weeks. This may save me big time!

I have another question that you may help me with. Is it possible that this client impacted my JSS while not leaving any private feedback (or even leaving a positive one) only because the contract was canceled without a payment?

I'm asking this because I just noticed I had another client ending a contract in the same period and that was the first client that rated me lower than 5 (he gave me 4.55). In short, I don't know if that was the guy who gave me poor private feedback (and that was a long-term, big-payer client.

Now I don't know where I should use my perk. I'm trying to figure out what could have had such an impact (10 points) on my JSS, as I'm afraid of wasting my perk with the wrong feedback.

Thanks again!

petra_r · ‎12-30-2020

Flavio A wrote:

I have another question that you may help me with. Is it possible that this client impacted my JSS while not leaving any private feedback (or even leaving a positive one) only because the contract was canceled without a payment?

No, that is not possible. Unless the client left poor private feedback there would be no effect. Also, if the client is suspended, their contracts are excluded from the JSS as well.

Flavio A wrote:
I'm asking this because I just noticed I had another client ending a contract in the same period and that was the first client that rated me lower than 5 (he gave me 4.55).
I'm afraid of wasting my perk with the wrong feedback.

That is indeed a risk. BUT: The JSS impact is Dollar weighed, so it is more likely that a 10 point drop was caused by a very big contract.

I would risk it though. If you stay below 90% another 2 weeks, it will mess up your eligible weeks and you could stay locked out of top rated for months anyway, so the perk would do you no good because you'd not have it. So you might as well gamble it.

My money is on the 4.5 big $$$ contract for sure.

sadiq_vayani · ‎12-31-2020

If contract is cancelled by the client for my project. Does this will affect my JSS score or any other impact on me as a freelancer becuase this was my second job. I am very worried.

petra_r · ‎12-31-2020

Muhammad Sadiq V wrote:
Does this will affect my JSS score

Only if the client left poor private feedback.

flavioaguilar · ‎12-31-2020

Hi Petra! I asked Upwork to remove the big contract feedback and it will be updated this Sunday. From your answers, I'm pretty sure that was the smartest choice. Thanks a lot for your help.

salma_sultani9 · ‎01-07-2021

My client left 4 star review for 2 hours job and later he edited with 5 star feedback with kind words but its been a 2 days that feedback is not showing on my profile, just showing in the contract list. can you help?

g_vasilevski · ‎01-07-2021

Hi Salma,

I checked your profile and I can see that it was updated accordingly. If you still need help with something, feel free to follow up here. Thank you.