Hill does not want those currently occupying first-team places to give up the shirt so easily as he looks to strengthen his squad.
Winger Andy Haworth has already joined up and the Dale chief is urging everyone to raise their game in the coming weeks.
"The players have got to see the fact that I am going to recruit as a stimulus," he told the Manchester Evening News. "They shouldn't see it as a negative, it's a massive positive.
"You want to be successful as a manager and as a player, and while players try to self-protect, they need that competitiveness in training with respect to other players coming in and forcing their hand in holding down the shirt.
"The aim is to bring players in to make it competitive and there may well be changes to that team going into the home game against Chesterfield on Saturday.
He added: "It's obvious to myself, the players and everybody that we do need recruitment. We will beg, steal and borrow, but we need to recruit the right calibre of player to improve us and improve everybody's opportunity to be successful."
