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vialisa
Community Member

Why would a freelancer have a 85% rating? Do they not complete the tasks?

I'm new to hiring and I'm a bit confused about the success ratings.  Why would I hire someone that doesn't have 100% success ratings?  I'm not clear on that rating system.  I'd hope that there is a reason why someone doesn't complete a gig that is paid for or a refund given.

Can someone explain to me how the success ratings works?

 

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colettelewis
Community Member


Lisa H wrote:

I'm new to hiring and I'm a bit confused about the success ratings.  Why would I hire someone that doesn't have 100% success ratings?  I'm not clear on that rating system.  I'd hope that there is a reason why someone doesn't complete a gig that is paid for or a refund given.

Can someone explain to me how the success ratings works?

 


__________________________

 

Lisa,

 

 Unfortunately no one can explain how exactly the rating system works. There are many reasons why a freelancer's ratings go down.

 

Sometimes a client will give a freelancer a public rating of 5/5 but in private will give the equivalent of a 1/5. This could have a major impact  on a freelancer's public JSS (Job satisfaction score). Clients do not always realize how harmful their private ratings can be. Better to give an honest and equivalent public and private rating. Sometimes bad private ratings are deserved, sometimes not, but the playing field is not always level. One job can go bad between a freelancer and client and can reflect on an otherwise excellent background.

 

Freelancers don't know where they have gone wrong and neither do their potentential clients.  So the best thing to do when you are hiring, is to use your own judgement. Check a freelancer's general experience,  portfolio and other credentials that are not based on Upwork's Algrorithm. If necessary ask them to do a small paid test.  

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14 REPLIES 14
colettelewis
Community Member


Lisa H wrote:

I'm new to hiring and I'm a bit confused about the success ratings.  Why would I hire someone that doesn't have 100% success ratings?  I'm not clear on that rating system.  I'd hope that there is a reason why someone doesn't complete a gig that is paid for or a refund given.

Can someone explain to me how the success ratings works?

 


__________________________

 

Lisa,

 

 Unfortunately no one can explain how exactly the rating system works. There are many reasons why a freelancer's ratings go down.

 

Sometimes a client will give a freelancer a public rating of 5/5 but in private will give the equivalent of a 1/5. This could have a major impact  on a freelancer's public JSS (Job satisfaction score). Clients do not always realize how harmful their private ratings can be. Better to give an honest and equivalent public and private rating. Sometimes bad private ratings are deserved, sometimes not, but the playing field is not always level. One job can go bad between a freelancer and client and can reflect on an otherwise excellent background.

 

Freelancers don't know where they have gone wrong and neither do their potentential clients.  So the best thing to do when you are hiring, is to use your own judgement. Check a freelancer's general experience,  portfolio and other credentials that are not based on Upwork's Algrorithm. If necessary ask them to do a small paid test.  

Thank you!  I was thinking it was completion rather than rating. 


Lisa H wrote:

Thank you!  I was thinking it was completion rather than rating. 


That's really interesting and I can see why you were confused.

 

I'm glad you asked. 


Nichola L wrote:

Freelancers don't know where they have gone wrong and neither do their potentential clients.  


When the Job Sucess Score (JSS) is very low, the freelancer often knows very well why. There is only so much that one can blame on the algorithm. 

 

The JSS is not an absolute indication of quality, I've seen people with a JSS of 100% delivering cr@p, but it gives you a good clue, especially when it's low and the person has a long job history (when a freelancer has only few jobs, one has to be careful because then the JSS wobbles a lot).

 

A JSS below 80% for instance is probably a red flag.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Anonymous-User
Not applicable

To be fair, there is also a large percentage of bad clients that receive high quality work but are vindictive scammers.

There needs to better system in place that holds them more accountable.

The OP wanted to know why a client would hire a freelancer with a score of 85%. This is not particularly low. And very often a freelancer whose JSS has fallen from the 90s to the 80s does not know why their JSS should have taken a tumble, particularly if the public feedback is good. 

madison-russell
Community Member

The success ratings are very confusing, and I honestly wouldn't look at that number when hiring. Instead, look at actual feedback the freelancer has gotten. If every single review is great except for one, then that would be why they have an 85%. Just one bad review, that may not even have been warranted, can ruin someone's success score. If you are considering hiring someone but are concerned about the success score, just ask. Hopefully, the freelancer will be honest about the score and you can learn more about their strengths and weaknesses along the way.

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Many things factor into a FL's JSS: public feedback (stars and comments), private feedback (weighted more heavily than public feedback, especially 'would you recommend this FL?), proportion of long-term clients, proportion of closed contracts with no fb (not a factor unless there is a 'substantial percentage' of them), contracts closed with no money earned at all.

 

As a client, when you close a contract you will be required to leave feedback about the FL. The FL is then invited to leave fb about you. It's double-blind--neither can see the other's fb until they leave their own. (If the FL closes the contract, it's reversed--they leave fb about you and you are invited to leave fb about them.) The FL never sees your private feedback but it does factor into their JSS. 

 

It's an imperfect system. It works best when all parties participate candidly and in good faith. That said, take it with a grain of salt. 

mtngigi
Community Member


Lisa H wrote:

I'm new to hiring and I'm a bit confused about the success ratings.  Why would I hire someone that doesn't have 100% success ratings?  I'm not clear on that rating system.  I'd hope that there is a reason why someone doesn't complete a gig that is paid for or a refund given.

Can someone explain to me how the success ratings works?

 


The JSS rating system is, for the most part, shrouded in mystery - in part because Upwork does not want anyone "gaming the system". Ratings can be low for any number of reasons, and not because a job was not completed or that the freelancer didn't do a good job. Sometimes a client and a freelancer are not a good fit. Sometimes clients post jobs that don't cover everything expected, and that can lead to disaster. Some clients can never be satisfied, no matter how hard a freelancer tries. And some freelancers bid on jobs they think they can do, but find they can't.

 

As was suggested, look carefully at all available information on a profile and if it's feasible, pay freelancers you're interested in to do small paid tests. But in the end, there are no guarantees. Do a forum search for "JSS". You'll be overwhelmed by the thousands of posts, most of them with no ready answers.

Virginia is quite right:

 

Just because you hire a freelancer with a 100% Job Success Score, it does not guarantee that you will have a successful outcome.

 

You might be a great client, and the freelancer might be a great freelancer, but there could still be a mismatch. Not all client/freelancer relationships are meant to be.

 

And you might hire a freelancer with a JSS of 85%. Or 80%. Or 75%... and find that they're a great pleasure to work with, and they're talented, and productive and you might wonder why their score was ever so low.

 

The JSS is a VERY VALUABLE RESOURCE. It is helpful. It is informative. But it is not the only thing.

 

And some clients find success by giving freelancers a second chance. A client might hire a freelancer with a lower JSS, whose JSS was low for very legitimate reasons... but that freelancer may be on an upswing and very ready to prove herself by doing better. Or she might be perpetually low-performing. There's no way to be certain unless you hire them.

kristen_oneill
Community Member

Like they all said, a bad private review can bring your JSS way down. And it can be something beyond the freelancers control, like although you told the client what your availability was in great detail, after hiring they decided that they wanted the task completed like, yesterday and they take out their frustration by leaving less than stellar private feedback. 


Kristen O wrote:

Like they all said, a bad private review can bring your JSS way down. And it can be something beyond the freelancers control, like although you told the client what your availability was in great detail, after hiring they decided that they wanted the task completed like, yesterday and they take out their frustration by leaving less than stellar private feedback. 


Which can happen once, twice, or heck even more, but when someone has a lot of jobs under their belt and a low JSS, these conferences don't weight much in the calculation of the score.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Lisa,  as Nichola and others have said, JSS is often shrouded in mystery.  Much of which is inexplicable.

 

One easy way to get a realistic sense of the freelancer's abilities is to read the comments that buyers leave.  Stars are easy to give.  Taking the time to write a few short sentences require an effort.  You'll discover far more about the individual and his/her ability and work ethic by reading the feedback comments than trying to ascertain info from any other source.

hoffenberg-irit
Community Member

Hello Lisa, 

JSS of 85% or less does not necessarily  mean freelancer didnt complette the job. Eronically, it can happen even to a freelnacer that receive only five star for every job he completed. The problem with the score system is, that thare are more parameters that effect the score. For example, if a job is open for a long time and the freelancer has not yet started to work on the job,  it could adversely effects his job score. However, there are many reasons why jobs are open and in process without activity. In my area for example, it could happen because of waiting for records, or documents from clients. Sometimes a client is asking to wait untill he gets what ever is still needed. The communication with the client is excellent and there is no problem. However, the wait time can takes more than two weeks, the JSS is been updated every two weeks, so this wait time can adversely effect the score. Therefore, you should't rely just on JSS but instead read the feedback that clients live on closed jobs. Look for a similar job that the freelnacer completed in the past ad read the review e.t.      

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