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What Really Happens When New Hires Fail

September 30, 2025

  • Kolbe Wisdom
  • Podcast
 

You hire someone for a reason. You expect it to work out.  

So what happens when it doesn’t? 

According to Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual, and David Kolbe, CEO of Kolbe Corp, it almost always comes down to one of two things: 

  1. You didn’t set the right expectations

or…

2. You didn’t find the right fit for the role

Setting the Right Expectations 

Ronzio has dedicated a large portion of his time and energy to solving that first issue. Trainual is an app dedicated to helping organizations train faster, maintain consistency, and keep their teams aligned at scale. 

He has found that the most successful companies are the ones who learn from their mistakes and implement systems to make sure they don’t happen again. This revelation came to him when his video production company failed a proud parent. 

“We were at Chelsea Piers, these ice skating rinks for this big championship event,” he told Kolbe on the Powered by Instinct podcast, “and our camera operator is filming one of the performances, and during the performance, the battery dies. And so they miss the performance. And I remember standing at our sales table and the mom coming up wanting that performance and us having to tell her that the camera died and, and we didn’t have it.” 

Ronzio realized things like that happen all the time in business. It’s how they respond that matters.  

“I think the good businesses fix those things as soon as they happen once, and the businesses that struggle and don’t scale to try to limit those problems from ever happening. Instead of saying, well, we’ll expand our fleet of cameras and camera operators and create a better process, they might say, oh, I have to be on the camera every time.” 

You put a clear process in place, and you train each new employee in a way that is clear. 

“I think if you find the right person and they’re failing,” said Ronzio, “It’s because you didn’t set the right expectations or teach them correctly. And if you feel like the training’s great, then maybe you just didn’t find the right person that’s a fit for the role.” 

Finding the Right Fit 

“I agree,” said Kolbe. “At least 90% of the problems are those two things.” 

You can have the best training possible, but the person receiving it has to have strengths that align with what’s being asked of them. 

This can be tricky because most companies only consider cognitive skills/experience, and culture/personality fit when hiring. But the number one predictor of success in a given role is that the role aligns with how someone naturally takes action.  

That’s why Kolbe Corp offers the Kolbe RightFit™ Hiring System, a tool that measures the instinctive strengths of candidates and compares them to the demands of the job.  

With this approach, you can consistently add employees who are not only a great fit for the team, but also for their specific roles. By ensuring that each person in your company is given freedom to be themselves, to approach tasks and problems in a way that meshes with their natural instincts, you create a culture where people are in jobs that work for them. 

Then, put systems in place to ensure they are fully trained and set up for lasting success. You’ll find that new hires will not only stick around, but they’ll also thrive. 

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  • Kolbe Wisdom
  • Podcast








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