Joeri Everaers

When I started out as a consultant, one thing kept striking me. Every company I worked with said exactly the same thing. Our people are our most important asset. And in almost every case, those same people were also the biggest cost item. But the moment I asked what actually made someone a top performer, nobody had an answer.

Even firms that had been hiring consultants and lawyers for decades could not tell me what set their best people apart from the rest. They selected on gut feeling and on pattern recognition that nobody could put into words, let alone measure.

That struck me as a problem worth solving. Not just for companies, although the productivity gains are enormous, but above all for people. Someone in a role that genuinely fits them is not only more productive but also happier. Work takes up a third of our lives, so getting that match right matters. It is why I built Selection Lab.

Our approach rests on three kinds of data. Data about people, about who someone is, mapped out through assessments and other instruments. Data about the role, about the type of work and the environment someone operates in. And performance data, about how people actually do over longer periods of time. Bring those three together and you can start answering questions that went unanswered for decades. What actually makes someone a good consultant? What kind of role would this particular person thrive in?

I can't imagine a more meaningful thing to work on. What makes it even better is that I get to do it with my partner, Lotte Welten. Building a company together with the woman I love, working on something I believe genuinely matters. For me that is the ideal combination.