Inflated requirements don't just filter candidates; they shrink your qualified pool below the threshold needed for efficient hiring.

Here's why the math works against you, and when (rarely) it doesn't.

Time-to-fill matters, but time-to-productivity matters more. Cost-per-hire matters, but quality-of-hire matters more. Vacancy costs are real, but mediocrity costs are larger.

Your interview process reveals what candidates want you to know. The real question is: what are you doing to learn what they don't?

Your hiring managers believe they're evaluating competence. They're not.

Your open position just received its 500th application. Congratulations. You now have a problem that looks like success but performs like failure.

This accounting is worse than incomplete. It's dangerously misleading. And once you understand the mathematics of hiring failure, you can't look at your hiring process the same way again.