Six RED FLAGS to watch out for when hiring remote employees...

Summary

Leila Hormozi shares six warning signs she uses to identify potentially poor hires in remote workplaces. Drawing on experience with virtual service, software, and physical-product companies, she argues that remote employees can be harder to assess because they may conceal disengagement or competing commitments behind a screen.

She distinguishes good churn—letting unsuitable hires go early, often within their first six months—from bad churn, when established employees leave. Her aim is to identify problems early and avoid retaining poor-fit hires.

Six Remote-Hiring Red Flags

1. Slow responses: After response-time expectations have been clearly set, persistent delays may indicate disengagement, competing jobs or clients, or limited availability. Hormozi recounts cases involving an executive consulting for about eight companies and an employee who was working only around 30 minutes a day while caring for children.

2. No positive team feedback: Ask teammates who work closely with a new hire for their observations. If there is no useful feedback—or the feedback is negative—investigate. In one portfolio-company example, the team said a month-old hire was not contributing, and the company let the person go.

3. Camera off during meetings: If video is part of the company’s meeting norms, consistently keeping the camera off can signal disengagement. Make expectations explicit, and allow employees to explain legitimate exceptions.

4. Calling in sick immediately after starting: An early absence is not proof of a problem, but honesty matters. Hormozi describes a new hire who allegedly sought paid leave using fraudulent medical documentation, and another who used sick leave to cover a pre-planned vacation rather than disclose it.

5. Dressing out of step with expectations: Set a clear remote-work dress standard, such as business casual or company apparel. A consistently unprofessional appearance may suggest the employee is not taking the role seriously.

6. Not preparing basic technology in advance: Strong hires proactively learn the tools they will use, such as Zoom, Gmail, Asana, and Slack. Repeated lateness or communication problems blamed on unfamiliarity with basic tools can signal low initiative or limited autonomy.

Practical Hiring and Management Playbook

• Set expectations upfront: Define response times, meeting norms, dress expectations, and required tools in onboarding materials or the employee handbook.
• Check in early: Seek team feedback during the first week and continue observing the hire’s work and communication.
• Investigate rather than assume: When a red flag appears, talk directly with the employee, clarify what is happening, and assess the explanation. An inability to give a credible explanation may itself be concerning.
• Use early evidence to make decisions: Address poor fit promptly rather than allowing an unsuitable hire to remain and potentially affect the team.

Presenter/source: Leila Hormozi.