Can you relate to one or more of these stories?
- A CEO knew within six months he’d hired the wrong person. Instead of addressing the issue, he built systems to work around the person’s poor job fit. Customers and top talent left.
- A company rehired three previous employees who had left. Two of them were fired after a couple of months. The other is currently blaming customer service staff for loss of customers.
- A company’s VP and CEO had been talking with a job candidate for six months. When they learned he was not a good fit for the manager job, they hired him anyway since they had already invested so much time. He was fired 60 days later.
- A company thought it was ahead of the industry curve by relying on AI for hiring advice. The problem? AI cannot deep dive into concerns, and is not defensible in a court of law.
Every company likes to think they are doing the best they can. Their leaders tell themselves they’re doing everything right: interview questions, assessments, due diligence, and hiring teams. So why does it still go so very wrong?
Weak Selection Practices Let Candidates Control the Narrative
Interviewing Fails to Uncover the Truth
People are poor lie detectors. To determine who to interview, we rely on resumes (over 90% contain inaccuracies and are written by AI). Then, to make matters worse, we fail to ask job-related questions and probe for specifics. Many interviewers rely on intuition, body language, and other subjective methods that are influenced by bias and provide no defensible hiring data.
Candidates know this. They rehearse polished answers, mirror the interviewer’s values, and present stories that sound impressive but reveal little about actual performance. Without probing for specific actions, decisions, and results, interviewers miss exaggerations and false claims about accomplishments, leadership responsibilities, and contributions.
Inappropriate Assessments Fail to Verify Job Fit and Capability
Many companies rely on assessments that lack the validity and reliability required for selection decisions (hiring, job promotions, and job transitions). As a result, candidates can easily present themselves as more capable than they actually are.
Many candidates exaggerate technical expertise, leadership skills, or job-related experience. Others answer assessments based on what they believe the employer wants to hear. Without using validated and reliable assessments, job simulations, and skill verification, employers have no objective way to distinguish genuine capability from self-promotion.
Incomplete Due Diligence Fails to Confirm the Facts
Candidate dishonesty is one of the biggest reasons organizations hire the wrong people. Yet many employers fail to verify employment history, credentials, certifications, references, and reported accomplishments.
Candidates exploit these gaps. Some fabricate employers, degrees, certifications, or job titles. Others inflate accomplishments, conceal failures, and disguise job-hopping by rewriting their work history. Some simply overestimate their abilities and focus on getting the offer rather than determining whether the role is the right fit. When hiring managers become excited about a candidate and skip proper verification, misrepresentations often remain hidden until after the hiring decision has been made.
How Do These Hiring Mistakes Impact You as a business leader, entrepreneur, and boss?
- Leaders feel duped. Bad hires create simmering resentment because leaders feel duped, misled, or forced to clean up messes they didn’t create. This upset and frustration often leaks into conversations, decisions, and team dynamics.
- Employees no longer feel safe. They worry mistakes will be blamed on them or that leadership won’t protect them (psychological safety) when they feel uncomfortable with new team members failing to learn the company’s systems and practices.
- Frustration and sleepless nights. Leaders lie awake replaying interviews, questioning their judgment, and worrying about how to fix the fallout. They fear letting the person go, especially if the person is well-liked but incompetent.
- Loss of customers. Poor job fit shows up fast: missed deadlines, sloppy work, bad interactions, and broken promises. The new employee blames the company systems and products for customers leaving. But customers don’t care why it happened … they simply leave.
- Broken systems and slow processes. When someone can’t do the job, everyone else compensates. Workarounds multiply. Processes slow down. Systems stop working as designed. Silos and factions get created and customers leave.
- Loss of revenues, results, and retention. All bad hires drain money: rework, turnover, mediocrity, customer churn, stalled projects, and missed opportunities. Top talent leaves because they’re tired of carrying the load … and the blame.
How many times have you hired “the best person,” only to realize, shortly after they start the job, that you made another mistake?
Let’s Get Real
I’ve been saying this for more than 34 years: most companies are still hiring people who do not fit the job duties. This is due to the company’s poor hiring practices! It’s expensive to the company and demoralizing to great employees who are tired of carrying the load to cover up the mistakes.
How Do You Transform hiring, job promotion, and job transitioning practices into great selection decisions?
Create a structured strategic selection process. Hiring isn’t easy or fun. Work with an experienced talent advisor who has actually hired and fired people, and understands the cost of mistakes. Create a system and follow it! Once it starts working DON’T STOP! A VP had great results making a new hire under the new hiring process; but quickly reverted back to her old ways (subjective hiring) with bad results, citing the new system took too much time. It hadn’t occurred to her that working with a bad employee actually cost significantly more time, money, customers, and good employees.
Conduct annual training for hiring bosses. Especially for leaders who hire infrequently or rely on social media “tips and tricks.” (“Hire Amazing Employees: How to Increase Retention, Revenues and Results!”) Now, hold all hiring bosses accountable for their hiring results.
Create job‑focused interview questions. Skip the cutesy questions which are indefensible (e.g., “Tell me about your favorite book or movie.” “What is your favorite animal or color.”) Use questions that uncover real job fit. Don’t be afraid to deep-dive into their responses to ascertain the level of skills they have for the job. (Hire Amazing Employees: How to Increase Retention, Revenues and Results! As one employment attorney said: “The cost of this book is worth the interview and reference checking questions!”)
Use qualified job‑fit and honesty/integrity assessments. Over 95% of assessments do not comply with Department of Labor guidelines for pre‑employment, job promotion, and job transitioning use. (Hire Amazing Employees, Ch. 9) Get real and use the right tool for incredible results!
Conduct real due diligence. Background checks, employment and education verifications, honesty/integrity assessments, and reference checks matter … especially now with so many people seeking jobs and using AI. (Hire Amazing Employees, Part 3, Ch. 16–17)
Job offer letters with due dates. If someone needs more than a couple of days to decide, move on. “I want to think about it” usually means they’re waiting for a counteroffer and those never work out well for the current and future employers. (Hire Amazing Employees, Ch. 18–19)
Onboard with intention. Most companies do this poorly; I’m not surprised when new top talent leaves. Create a 180‑Day Success Plan and follow it with all new hires, job promotions, and job transitions. (Hire Amazing Employees, Ch. 6 & 20)
Hiring, job promotions, and job transitions may sound easy. But getting the right person in the right job is not! As you move through Q4 and into 2027, commit to improving your selection process using real tools and best practices. It directly impacts your profitability and your credibility. Now, hold the hiring bosses accountable for their hiring results!
© Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 34 years of experience activating greatness in leaders and companies. She delivers practical coaching and solutions that elevate performance today, build legacies that stand the test of time, and support people in empowering themselves to lead with clarity and impact.