Are Your Hiring Standards Too Low?

If you'd hesitate to re-hire someone already on your team, your hiring standards are too low. The difference between a company that thrives and one that quietly falls apart isn't the product or the market — it's the people, and people are the one input most owners are least rigorous about. I'm Christian Saab, founder of CPG Recruitment, and having built teams across 25+ industries in Canada and the US since 2020, I've watched two businesses in the same market with the same offering end up in completely different places. Every time, the divergence traces back to who they let in.

How do you know if your standards have slipped?

Run the re-hire test. Go through your team name by name and ask honestly: knowing everything I know now, would I enthusiastically hire this person again today? Not "are they fine." Enthusiastically.

Every name you hesitate on got through a process that's still running. That's the uncomfortable part — it isn't a judgment about the person, it's a diagnosis of the standard. The other tell is when hiring conversations start with "can they do the job?" instead of "is this the best person we can get for this seat?" Those two questions produce very different companies over five years.

Why do the strongest companies interview so thoroughly?

Because they treat culture as an asset that has to be defended, and the only gate they control is who gets in. The companies that run many interview stages aren't being difficult for sport. They've concluded that one wrong person in the wrong seat costs more than any amount of interviewing.

The important detail is that each stage has to test something different. Five interviews asking the same questions is theatre and it burns good candidates. A real process tests five different things:

• A screen for capability.

• A conversation about how they actually work.

• A practical exercise.

• A session with the people they'd work beside daily.

• Real reference checks.

Rounds without purpose are just delay, and strong candidates read delay as disorganisation.

Doesn't raising the bar slow everything down?

Not when the standard is written down and shared. This is the part owners find hardest to believe: we raised the bar at CPG and our average time-to-fill dropped from 68 days to 37. Higher standards, faster hiring, at the same time.

It works because most of the time in a slow search isn't spent evaluating — it's spent re-deciding what you're looking for. When the criteria are fixed and everyone has agreed to them, pre-screening removes mismatches in minutes and you interview three to five real finalists rather than fifteen maybes. Vague standards are what's slow. That's why the bar and the process get set in the same meeting, which I've written about in how to run a Recruitment Launch Meeting.

What's the difference between a high standard and an unrealistic one?

High standards are demanding about outcomes and evidence. Unrealistic requirements are demanding about credentials and wish lists. "Has run a team through a systems migration and can show me how" is a high standard. "Twelve years in our exact industry with a specific certification" is usually a wish list that eliminates excellent people for no gain.

The useful test is whether a requirement would change your decision about a real candidate sitting in front of you. If it wouldn't, it's decoration — and decoration is what makes a requirements list long enough that every reviewer picks their own three favourites. Being specific about outcomes never shrinks the pool. Being specific about credentials almost always does. This is the same trap behind hiring the wrong person repeatedly.

What do low standards actually cost you?

They cost you the people you already have. Your strongest performers notice a weak hire before management does, because they're the ones absorbing the extra work and redoing what didn't get done. Leave it unaddressed and you've sent two messages you never intended: mediocrity is acceptable here, and leadership can't see it.

That's when your best people start taking recruiter calls, and none of it shows up on a spreadsheet. The direct arithmetic is bad enough on its own — I've laid out the full cost of a bad hire and for a growing company it runs into six figures before you count the resignation it triggers.

Losing one great employee because you kept one weak one is the worst trade in business.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should you keep a seat empty rather than lower the bar?

Usually yes, if the alternative is a hire you already have doubts about. An empty seat is a cost you can see and plan around. A wrong hire in a key seat is a cost you can't see until it's compounding. The exception is when the vacancy is actively burning out your team — then bring in interim or contract help rather than making a permanent decision under pressure.

How do you raise standards without making candidates hate the process?

Be fast, be transparent, and make every stage earn its place. Tell candidates up front how many steps there are and what each one is for, then hold to that timeline. Strong candidates respect a demanding process that's well run — what they walk away from is silence, rescheduling, and rounds that clearly duplicate each other.

Can a small business really compete for top people?

Yes, on things large companies can't match: real ownership, direct access to leadership, visible impact, and speed. You may not win on base salary, but plenty of excellent people are choosing something other than base salary. What loses you those candidates isn't your size — it's a sloppy process that signals what working there will feel like.

What about the people already on the team who wouldn't pass the new bar?

Raising the hiring bar isn't a reason to clear house. Start by being honest about expectations with the people you have and giving them a real chance to meet them — many will, once the standard is finally explicit. What isn't fair to anyone is holding new candidates to a bar you've never articulated to your current team.

Where do you start raising the bar?

Start with the next role you open, not with the team you already have. If the re-hire test gave you names you hesitated on, write the standard down before that job goes live. CPG Recruitment can set the bar and run the process with you, you can reach the team through the CPG for-employers page, or contact me directly and tell me which seat you can't afford to get wrong.