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!

saad-jamal · ‎05-02-2021

Hi

How does an active long-term contract without any activity effects JSS?

Negatively or Positively?

Please help

LuiggiR · ‎05-02-2021

Hi Saad,

In general, contracts without an outcome should not impact JSS. This means that if you have a long term contract without any activity, it will have no effect on your score. Your JSS can change because:

- You receive poor public or private feedback from one or more clients.

- You receive very positive public or private feedback from one or more clients.

- A higher-value job is added to your score and outweighs lower-value jobs.

- Jobs you completed in the past are no longer considered because they are outside the score's time frame.

You can check this help article to learn more.

calado-marco · ‎05-02-2021

Hi Saad

Just to underline Luiggi reply with a personal example:

I have an open job since last may (one year this month) the client never sent any review and it never affected my JSS.

Yes it was a previous client with previous jobs, all already closed, but the current one still open with consecutive milestones addings.

Nevertheless, i believe it helps to keep the job active in the sense that milestones are renewed and paid in opposite to just keep the job open but idle.

Overall, like Luiggi said, it will only count bad (or good) reviews after the job is closed.

Best regards and keep safe

Marco

haroon457 · ‎05-07-2021

What happens to JSS of a freelancer there starts a contract with a client and then client suddenly ends the contract stating that he no longer needs work to be completed and request for refunding all of the amount in the escrow without making a single payment to freelancer? When I see whether he made a feedback or not, I see feedback N/A.
Please let us know does it affect JSS?

omda9999 · ‎06-07-2021

A client hired me, then disappeared! It's now almost 1.5 months he don't respond to my messeges, does the JSS being affected because of that? What do I do in this situation?? Do i have to close it or just wait in case that if its not affecting my jss.

Thanks,

AndreaG · ‎06-07-2021

Hi Emad,

Please know that contracts without feedback do not affect your JSS. This contract will not be included in your JSS until it's closed and only if the client leaves feedback.

omda9999 · ‎06-07-2021

Hi Andrea, thanks for your reply!

Another question, regarding to your reply “ This contract will not be included in your JSS until it's closed and only if the client leaves feedback.“

Does that works also for the inactive contracts? I have 2 contracts which I worked on and made some earnings “ hourly “ but currently the clients are not responding= they didn’t close the contracts. So its still open but inactive. So does that affects my JSS? Should i close them?
Thanks.

JoanneP · ‎06-07-2021

Hi Emad,

If there were earnings on these contracts, these should not affect your JSS negatively. You can check the explanation of how JSS is calculated here and this article for more information on what factors affect your score.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎06-08-2021

Joanne Marie P wrote:
Hi Emad,

If there were earnings on these contracts, these should affect your JSS negatively. You can check the explanation of how JSS is calculated here and this article for more information on what factors affect your score.

Joanne Marie, do I understand correctly -- you're saying a contract with earnings and no client feedback has a negative effect on the FL's JSS?

The links you provided both go to the same page and it contains no information at all about contracts that end with no feedback from clients.

jr-translation · ‎06-08-2021

Joanne Marie P wrote:
Hi Emad,

If there were earnings on these contracts, these should affect your JSS negatively. You can check the explanation of how JSS is calculated here and this article for more information on what factors affect your score.

So you are saying:

a closed contract without feedback does not hurt the JSS (Topic of the thread), while an open contract with earnings has a negative effect?