Alex Hormozi recently shared something that caught my attention: "Signs Your Hiring Bad Employees." Even in a few words, that headline lands because most hiring mistakes do not look like mistakes at first. They look like a decent resume, a confident interview, and a "we can coach the rest" feeling.

"Signs Your Hiring Bad Employees"

When I saw Alex Hormozi frame it this bluntly, it made me think about how often founders blame themselves for a hire that is objectively the wrong fit. Yes, leadership matters. But there are also repeatable patterns that show up when the wrong people get into your org and start costing you time, energy, and customer trust.

Below is my expansion on Alex's idea: the most common signals you are hiring (or keeping) bad employees, why those signals happen, and what to do about them before they become culture.

What "bad hire" really means

A "bad employee" is not usually a bad person. In practice, it means one (or more) of these:

They cannot do the job at the required level.
They can do it, but will not (low effort, low ownership, low standards).
They do the work, but poison the team (drama, politics, disrespect).
They are mismatched to the stage (needs perfect process in a messy startup, or needs chaos in a mature company).

A useful reframe: you are not just hiring skills. You are hiring patterns of behavior under stress.

The clearest signs you are hiring bad employees

1) Output is consistently below what was promised

In interviews, almost everyone sounds like a high performer. In reality, performance shows up as:

Volume (how much gets done)
Quality (how well it is done)
Speed (how quickly it gets done)
Independence (how little babysitting it requires)

If you are seeing repeated missed deadlines, half-finished work, or deliverables that create more work for others, treat that as signal, not noise.

If the "ramp period" keeps getting extended, you are not onboarding - you are bargaining.

2) They need constant context, reminders, and emotional reassurance

Everyone needs management. Bad hires need parenting.

Look for patterns like:

They cannot move without detailed instructions.
They forget what was agreed in the last meeting.
They regularly need reassurance to do standard parts of the role.

This is especially dangerous in small teams because your leadership attention is the scarcest resource.

3) Excuses replace ownership

One of the fastest tells is the language people use when something goes wrong.

Ownership sounds like:

"Here is what happened, here is what I learned, here is what I will do next."

Excuses sound like:

"I could not because..."
"No one told me..."
"That is not my job..."

Of course, constraints are real. The issue is whether the person treats constraints as information or as a shield.

4) They create friction, not momentum

Bad hires increase coordination costs. You will feel it as:

More meetings to align
More rework to fix misunderstandings
More side conversations to smooth conflict
More "checking in" because you do not trust the work will land

High performers simplify. They reduce noise. If someone consistently increases friction, your org is paying a tax.

5) They do not seek feedback, or they resist it

Feedback is the price of growth. A strong employee may not love feedback, but they use it.

Warning signs:

Defensiveness and long explanations
Immediate blame shifting
"Yes, but" responses as a reflex
No visible behavior change after feedback

A great litmus test is to give small, specific feedback early and watch the response. The response tells you more than the resume.

6) They are "values compliant" in words, not in actions

A lot of people can mirror your language in an interview: customer-first, high standards, ownership, urgency.

But values only matter when they cost something. Examples:

Do they tell the truth when it is uncomfortable?
Do they protect customers when it hurts short-term metrics?
Do they hold the line on quality when no one is watching?

If someone only shows the value when it benefits them, you do not have alignment. You have theater.

7) The role keeps getting redefined to fit the person

This one is subtle. You start with "We need X." Then you hire someone who cannot do X, so you slowly shift expectations to "Well, we also needed Y anyway." After a few months, the role is unrecognizable.

Sometimes roles evolve naturally. But if the evolution always conveniently matches what the person can do (not what the business needs), that is a sign you are rationalizing a mis-hire.

Why these hiring mistakes happen (even to good leaders)

Alex Hormozi's headline is viral because it points to an uncomfortable truth: most hiring errors come from predictable biases.

You overvalue confidence and undervalue proof.
You hire fast to relieve pain, not to build capacity.
You confuse "culture fit" with "I like them."
You skip scorecards and rely on gut.

If you want fewer bad hires, you need fewer guess-based decisions.

Practical fixes: how to screen out bad hires before they start

1) Write a scorecard that forces clarity

Before you interview, define:

Outcomes for 30-60-90 days
Competencies (hard skills)
Behaviors (soft skills under pressure)
Non-negotiables (must-have traits)

Then interview against the scorecard, not vibes.

2) Use a work sample or paid audition

Resumes measure history. Auditions measure reality.

Examples:

A marketer drafts two ad concepts and a landing page outline.
A sales rep runs a mock discovery call.
An ops hire maps a process and identifies failure points.

Make it role-relevant, time-boxed, and scored.

3) Add a "stress question" to reveal default behaviors

Ask about:

A time they missed a deadline and what they changed.
A time they disagreed with a boss and how they handled it.
A time they made a mistake that affected a customer.

Listen for ownership, specificity, and learning. Vague stories often hide vague performance.

4) Reference checks that ask for tradeoffs, not compliments

Instead of "Were they good?" ask:

"What would you not trust them with?"
"What kind of environment makes them struggle?"
"If you could change one thing about how they work, what would it be?"

People will often tell you the truth if you ask the right question.

If you already hired them: what to do next

Bad hires linger when expectations are fuzzy.

Set a clear target with a deadline (for example, "By day 30, you own X with no reminders.")
Measure weekly with objective outputs.
Coach behaviors once, then watch for change.
If there is no change, act quickly.

Keeping the wrong person to avoid discomfort is expensive. It lowers the bar for everyone who is watching.

Closing thought

Alex Hormozi's simple prompt, "Signs Your Hiring Bad Employees," is useful because it pushes you to look for patterns, not isolated incidents. The goal is not perfection. The goal is a system that catches mismatch early, protects your team, and keeps performance standards real.

This blog post expands on a viral LinkedIn post by Alex Hormozi, Founder Acquisition.com, Co-Founder Skool.com. Get your free scaling roadmap👇. View the original LinkedIn post →