Job Success Score Update | December 2023

[BrandonS]

Upwork's Job Success Score (or JSS, for short) is one of the key features of our platform. JSS is a measure of clients' satisfaction with the work that hired talent have completed. With JSS, talent can stand out in the marketplace, and clients can make quick, informed decisions about who to hire. 

Because JSS is so important to our customers, it’s essential that the logic behind this score is transparent and that the score accurately reflects talent's past performance on their contracts. This sometimes requires us to make modifications for the benefit of Upwork's customers and the health of the marketplace. 

Today, we've introduced a few changes to JSS that are aligned to our goals of transparency and accuracy, and are rooted in feedback that we've heard from you, our customers. These changes are:

• Now talent can earn JSS after completing 2 projects with 2 unique clients anytime within a 24 month period. Previously we required at least 4 projects with 2 unique clients.
• We are putting more emphasis on public feedback, which gives talent more transparency into the outcomes that impact their score. This also will give clients a deeper understanding of talent’s strengths and weaknesses and how they performed on previous projects.

You can read more about these changes and how we calculate JSS overall in our Help Center.

We're excited about these updates, and are committed to continuing to listen to your feedback and improve our marketplace. Thank you for your trust in our team and our products.

[db801079]

Hello Brandon,

Thank you for the update. I have had a JSS score of around 80% and it has been updated every 2 weeks - the latest update was on 10. Dec, so my question is does the new policy apply to my JSS update, and if Yes then how will it affect my JSS, in which aspect?

Thank you so much and best regards,

Kieu.

[AveryO]

Hi Kieu, 

Yes, the Job Success Score changes were applied in the last update, which was on 10 December. 

As for how this affects you, with this change, public feedback from clients now carries more weight in your Job Success Score (JSS). This makes it easier for you to connect your JSS with the feedback you’ve seen from your clients. Check out this article to understand how your Job Success Score is calculated.

[jamesdavis76]

MY JOB SUCCESS SCORE IS WRONG  @50%, AND IT IS ENTERED INCORRECTLY. HOW CAN I CHANGE THIS?

James K. Davis jndavis98@sbcglobal.net

[478a4794]

James. Did you ever get feedback from Upwork on how to correct your jss score? I have a similar issue.  Camille

[3444615f]

Hi Upwork support team in have not been updated about my jss i completed the contract of 100$ with good feedback so I'm disturbed about that kindly confirm to why my jss was not updated

[juanramon-ortiz]

How can a freelancer access the exact numbers being accounted for calculating their JSS?

Transparency is the best way to legitimate the score being used.

Thanks,

JRO

[0e21883c]

Hi! It is sad because my Top-Rated Plus badge was removed because of this update. You updated this JSS but did not notify us via Email about these changes. I was expecting to get paid tomorrow, but we will need to sacrifice because of this. If you were updating the rules, it would be better if we were notified or the effectivity is not instant.

It was also hard to contact your Support and talk to a live agent. From a 100% success score, it went to Unavailable and lost my Top-Rated Plus badge, so my hard-earned money will not be credited on time because of this.

[AveryO]

Thank you for taking the time to post on this thread, Leonidas. 

I understand how this must make you feel after losing your eligibility for faster payments as a Top Rated freelancer. I have shared your sentiments with the team and how talent like you value being informed ahead of time (preferably through email) of changes that may impact your access to certain features. 

Let us know if you have other feedback you'd wish to share. 

[kimmcnichol]

This is a very unbalanced ranking system that promotes turn and burn and small short-term contracts. If the goal is to attract more DAU, it probably would make more sense to have the ranking reflect on the freelancer or agency's ability to execute and deliver on a project instead of factoring in how frequently they get new contracts. I have a 4.5 and 5 star rating but my JSS is 85%? My contracts are all long term. This makes it increasingly difficult to get new contracts. Better talent attracts better job listers and companies, which in turn generates more DAU for Upwork. The current system makes more freelancers and agencies want to leave because of how difficult it is to get a good contract with anything less than a 95% JSS. 

[stephaniebeee]

I'm going through the same thing. I had a random end of contract with a client who was not all that great towards the end and gave me a 4/5 my score was at a 100 then went down 85 I feel that is completely unfair rating. Upwork is trash and will leave once I am done with a project.

[jamesdavis76]

MY JOB SUCCESS JSS @ 50% IS INCORRECT. HOW CAN IT BE CORRECTED?

JAMES K. DAVIS  JNDAVIS98@SBCGLOBAL.NET

[519a3cad]

Excuted too !

[jamesdavis76]

My job success score @ 50% is wrong. How can it be corrected? 

James k. davis jndavis98@sbcglobal.net

[agx-designs]

Hi Bardon,

Well in my personal experience, there's still some untraspernacy regarding factors affecting calculating JSS, and i would kindly appreciate a real investigation regarding my profile, I've made tracking my JSS in the past two months,  and calculations and notes on my JSS were like following:

1 - i was 91% two months ago, and I won big contracts with direct messages or invitations (not even with applying to jobs), i did great 5 stars on those contracts, so it does make sense to go up to 100% which what happened

2 - after I've been 100% I started to get hired into higher paying jobs, also with direct messages and proposals even with a higher hourly rate, and still received 5 starts feedback on those new contracts, and even extremely happy clients with excellent private and public feedback

If that's the case after this update and as you already say public feedback has more impact, I need someone to explain how on earth JSS went down to 92% despite i did not get even one bad feedback whether it's public or private (I'm sure on this as clients tend to hire me on more other projects but maybe he wants another category so he opens new contract !!!!)

- Things I did which I don't know does it affects JSS or not (as I mentioned earlier not enough transparency), which naturally would happen if i started getting more hires and with long-term clients and higher hourly rates, things like :

1. not applying for jobs for like two or three weeks straight, which is normal as some clients already reach out to me directly via messages.
2. less hours worked / week as I focus more on quality which is what normally would happen when I increase my rate, by the way, it's totally 100% normal for the client if his work is done with the required quality, he even might appreciate the speed some times.
3. decline low-budget, low-quality job invitations, clients with spam jobs, or clients with no experience, etc..(which is up to me to decide).

and here's my question and my concern Do those three points affect my JSS calculation or not?

[dhanny007]

Hi Brandon, I meet all the criteria and I am not a top rated talent yet. Do you know why?

[nahidhasan771]

Thanks for this Update 😊

[the_vikasthakur]

Hi Brandon, thank you for the update. I have one doubt - My profile was Top Rated Plus a few days ago. I have not received a single negative review recently, infact I have only received positive feedbacks from my clients. Yet, my profile got demoted from Top Rated Plus to Top Rated Only. Why?

[4e147fd2]

Thanks for this actualizacion

[6f764334]

Hello, 

Recently my upwork agency got JSS status of 100%, I was very happy because I am a newbie and I am trying very hard to do everything well to earn a good reputation and build a career on Upwork.

 Yesterday I was very upset because my JSS dropped dramatically from 100% to 33%, I'm trying to understand what I did wrong? 

In my agency, we have closed 1 contract recently with an excellent score of 5, we have not had any bad reviews or disputes with clients. 

It's a big blow to my reputation and career and I think there was some kind of mistake. I'm a specialist and I do my job very well and such a low rating is a big blow to my reputation and a negative impact on my success on the platform. 

Please check my scores and advise me what happened to cause such a big drop, I think it's a mistake. 

[bevkate]

My JSS has been gradually dropping from 98% to 95% over the past 2-3 weeks.. the contracts that I've completed were given 5-star feedback and I have a few open contracts still ongoing. Are clients able to respond negatively to a milestone on an open contract? Trying to figure out why my JSS is dropping.

[3bfcb670]

I have the same sentiment. I have 100% JSS and my Top Rated badge has been removed. 

[af12b4c6]

I just noticed that my JSS is 50%!! Since i was working on longer term projects outside of Upwork recently, i did shorter and smaller projects here mostly, but all of them with basically 5star reviews only. Maybe two of them were like 95% instead of 100% happy. It is also true that i was not continuously on Upwork looking for jobs the past 3 years, but why does this affect a success score? 

I also would like to ask about private comments? What are these exactly for? I would strongly prefer the client to tell me directly if he was not happy with something, so i can learn from it. What it is useful for, if I don't even know if someone was unhappy with something, just pulling my scores down unknowingly? This looks terrible on my profile and i totally get it that at first glance it probably creates a negative view.

So my question is - how can i improve this? Like, literally if i don't win top jobs, only smaller ones (which i thought first that could be good do collect good reviews with!), my score gets automatically worse?

[williamtcooper]

Brandon,

I think this was a much needed feature and thanks for making the improvement.

Too many clients don't understand Upwork's rating system nor how to review freelancers so this is a helpful change.

Another change to consider is the three month rule that allows freelancers to remove inappropriate reviews once every three months provided they have 10 clients during that period of time.

Bascially that is a 10% removal rate. However for more active freelancers that have 100 clients every three months that is a removal rate of 1%. A ratio that is the same for all freelancers should be used versus giving favor to lower activity freelancers and a penalty to more productive freelancers.

[attique-sadeeque]

Hello! I just want to confirm that if client added bad feedback and all amount of the  contract refunded to client then his feedback will effect the Jss? 

[749105e1]

Hi Brandon, 

Thank you for letting us know.

I have been actively working on Upwork for the past year. I have had long-term projects (2 that ended in Nov 2023), and I understand I wasn't eligible for a JSS before Nov.
But with this update, I should have received a JSS. My JSS was reviewed on January 7th. 

I currently have other projects going on as well. Could you please let me know what went wrong on my end. 
I have attached a screenshot for your reference.

Thanks,
Aqsa 

[7eb62250]

Last 6 months my JSS was decreased without any issue. Please check and update this

[4e5c2d65]

Having one of the most important metrics my clients see, my Job Success Score, be calculated behind the scenes in a hidden manner means I have no way to understand which client relationships are good for my future success and which clients are bad (since positive public feedback does NOT mean a client marked my job as "Successfully Completed" when closing the contract, and a project ending does NOT always mean that MY performance was the reason for the project's early closure), and while I can track this information myself by watching when a contract ends to see if it moves my job success score up or down, I have absolutely zero way to investigate these clients claims through Upwork. Additionally, counting only closed contracts and NOT counting ongoing contracts that have positive feedback  PUNISHES my profile if I manage to continue an ongoing relationship with a client on a longterm project. ESPECIALLY for new freelancers that are starting their careers, and might only have one or two major clients.

[b1e29b81]

Hi Brandon S,

I greatly appreciate the addition of this feature – it's a significant enhancement that was long overdue. Many clients often find themselves navigating Upwork's rating system without a clear understanding, making the freelancer review process a bit challenging. This improvement is particularly valuable, as it addresses the common issue of clients grappling with how to effectively evaluate freelancers. Thanks for implementing this positive change!

[jamesdavis76]

Brandon: I hope you can help me. I have completed six jobs for Upwork. Of the six, I know four were competed successfully. My JSS reflects 50%, which makes it nearly impossible to get more work. This seems to say that two jobs were unsuccessful. I don't know what they are or how the 50% is calculated. Can you help?

James K. **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[4e5c2d65]

Still now way to get in touch with support. Still stuck at an "89% Job Score" because a client simply decided they were cancelling their whole project for their own financial reasons. Just fell out of the 13/16 months streak range which means I now need to wait 4 months after this is resolved to get my top rated badge.

Your company has really shafted me and a lot of people with this, and we have no way to get in touch with a human being to help us.

[jamesdavis76]

BRANDON: I NEED HELP! MY JOB SUCCESS SCORE IS WRONG AND IT IS COSTING ME JOBS. WHO DO I CONTACT TO CORRECT IT?

JAME K. DAVIS **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[ArjayM]

Hi James,

I can sense that there's an unexpected change happened on your score. Your Job Success Score can change for a number of reasons, even without recent activity. Your best JSS score will be displayed based on the rolling windows when it is calculated.

Sometimes, new contracts are added that impact your JSS. Other times, old activity is aged out. Unfortunately, we won't be able to comment on an individual score or how specific contracts affect it but this process is by design.

Additionally, please remember that your Job Success score is updated every two weeks, and any movement in this score (either up or down) reflects both recent activity and activity over a longer period of time. Because we look at trends over a 24-month period, you can see your score change, even without recently closed contracts, due to past jobs slipping out of your 3-, 6-, 12- and 24-month history in the marketplace. 

I hope this clarifies. You can find more information in this article. 

[js3d]

I've not used Upwork for at least a year (because I had an ongoing contract with a client which is ending this coming March)

I previously had a 90% success score and I just logged in to find its now 65%

All my feedback was either 5stars or the client just didnt leave any (but I know they were satisfied from their messages to me)

The last client left feedback of 4.24/5 is that what has trashed my score?

cant see how I'm going to get any work on here again now!

[money5510]

I'm in the same boat you are in and support does not say anything except a copy/paste response. It will continue to drop when you are not working on here is what I see.

[designcloud__co]

Hey Brandon –
I had a question regarding the JSS system.  So, recently I realized I now have a JSS and it shows on my public profile.  Well, it's a 40%.  And while I'm unsure how your algorithm works, when my cursor hovers over the score, it reads "The percentage of this freelancer's jobs that resulted in a great client experience."

If you take a look at all my clientele reviews, I've had no lower than 4 stars (out of 5) for a rating in all my time on Upwork, dating back to before the merger when it was still Elance.  And a majority of the ratings are 5s.  I've only had about three or so clients in my entire history on this platform that gave me between a 4 and 4.9.  This is including my several most recent jobs.  While I haven't been very active this year, I do have three in the past year that were 5 star, 4 star and one that didn't rate.

I guess I'm asking for help in working out how my JSS is at 40% and what I can do to raise that?  Please let me know, I'm eager to raise that percentage as I fear it will affect my ability to get hired for jobs.  In the past, when I was more active, I got to a point where I would be hired nearly two out of every five proposals.  I really don't want this to affect my numbers.

Thank you for taking the time to review my post.  Any reply is much appreciated!

- Samantha M.

[7fc7c7c9]

Hello Brandon, 

I want to know that for jobs like Project Management, as they are mostly long term jobs with a great number of hours added, even then one needs to have 2 unique clients to get JSS? 

Regards

Sana

[PradeepH]

Hi Sana,

This is applicable to all job categories on the platform. You refer to this article for more information. 

- Pradeep

[frankaguirre]

Guys, I think you made a HUGE mistake on this update. This score update does not reflect the reality at all.

I personally don't understand it. I feel like you are punishing everyone, especially disincentivizing high-earners. I can show you my numbers and how my conversion rates decreased, and my CAC increased since you implemented this. 

Upwork told me that I was one of the fastest-growing profiles in the last 12 months. Check it by yourselves; you have the data.
This update dropped my score from 100% to 92% overnight. Last week I closed 2 large contracts with 5 stars public feedback, and I'm still at 92%, no updates. It seems that if I do great, I stay the same, and if I engage with a bad person that gives me a bad rating, I loose it all (and there's a lot of these crazy people around hiring on Upwork).

Despite I'll keep engaging in Upwork jobs, I'm more incentivized now to stay where I am and not to risk my 92% and lose my Top Rated Plus status. It impacts me negatively, and consequently, it impacts Upwork revenue too, and I'm sure there are a lot of freelancers in a similar situation. 

There's something wrong. I love Upwork but to be honest, I'm very disappointed. Please review ASAP. 

[39c4e22d]

Hi Frank,

Did this issue get resolved yet? I'm going through the same issue and I agree with your arguments! What's the point in exerting ourselves to completing projects wonderfully; giving our best, paying for a Plus profile, upgrades, extra connects, etc. if this "grade" is cheating us out of an evaluation or grade, that truly reflects our performance!! Since mine dropped to an inexplicable and offensive 78% with a 60% people who would recommend me that came out of nowhere!?!?! I'm obviously getting cero proposals!!! I’m also very happy with Upwork but after seeing this issue being dragged for so long with no resolution, I can’t help but wonder if it's worth paying the soon to be $20 and all…