How important is applicants' perception about job relatedness of selection process?

We study how the perception of job applicants about job-relatedness of the selection procedure impacts: 1) the outcome of the selection process; 2) willingness of the applicants to recommend the employer to others; 3) the decision to accept the job offer after the applicant successfully clears the test process. We survey graduating MBA students appearing in campus recruitment processes at the premier management schools in India in order to measure the perception about selection procedures of firms. We use two measures to identify applicants' perception: face validity (FV) and perceived predictive validity (PPV). The results suggest that when the candidates are unable to understand the relevance of a test, they are less likely to get selected in the test or recommend the employer to other applicants. However, we find that it is only the face validity and not the predictive perceived validity of the selection tests, which positively affects the likelihood of a selected candidate accepting the offer. The findings of the study have direct implications for the practitioners. The study shows that organisations that explain the relevance of their selection procedures to applicants are more likely to increase their access to talent pool.