I wouldn't expect people who are genuinely bad to work with in an academic research lab to be good to work with in an industry research lab.
On the other hand, I wouldn't expect PhD students (or any new hires) to be perfect out of the gate. Assuming the content (algorithms, approach, analysis) was correct and the main problems were with code style and presentation, perhaps they needed to be instructed regarding proper code and presentation style and directed to follow that instruction.
Messy desks are probably not the root cause of poor code or presentation.
On the other hand, I wouldn't expect PhD students (or any new hires) to be perfect out of the gate. Assuming the content (algorithms, approach, analysis) was correct and the main problems were with code style and presentation, perhaps they needed to be instructed regarding proper code and presentation style and directed to follow that instruction.
Messy desks are probably not the root cause of poor code or presentation.