Partner Profile: Segal

Welcome to our Partner Profile Series. Each month, we feature insights and perspectives from HR professionals and consultants working with various clients to address today's most pressing issues.

This month, our spotlight is on Segal. Segal is a leading employee benefits, actuarial, communications, and strategic human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York with more than 1,100 employees throughout the U.S. and Canada. We are an independent, employee-owned firm known for providing unbiased consulting based on our people's integrity, expertise, personal investment, and trusted advice. Members of the Segal family include Segal, Segal Benz, and Segal Marco Advisors.

I sat down with Christopher Goldsmith, SPHR, CCP, CEBS, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Segal. Chris manages client relationships at Segal and is a subject matter expert in total compensation, health and welfare benefits, absence management, population health, and applied behavioral economics. He consults with higher education institutions, private industry, public sector organizations, and collectively bargained benefit plans.

I have been at Segal for 17 years and in the HR, compensation, and benefits consulting business for 40 years. I enjoy working with clients from Florida to Washington State and Southern California to New England. I have come to appreciate many industries, organizations, corporate cultures, and points of view in the US.  So, although I live in Arizona, I work where clients bring me and where clients send me. Thank goodness much of that travel is now virtual, and I am back on the road again (with a little less frequency than before the pandemic).

My work at Segal includes managing client relationships, consulting across the spectrum of what we do at Segal, developing intellectual capital, and leading two corporate market initiatives: one dealing with absence management and paid leave programs, and the other dealing with our DEI in Benefits consulting approach. DEI in Benefits is about optimizing benefit program design and benefit program delivery to attract and retain diverse and complex workforces.  I believe the aphorism “a rising tide lifts all boats” works well with many organizations and their employee benefits ecosystems.

I have always been intrigued by and involved with intersections between subject matter areas. Whether the topic is variable pay, total rewards, flexible benefits, alternative work arrangements, or human well-being, the intersection of sub-topics within those areas and planning with a multi-disciplinary frame of reference creates value for the individual and value for the employing organization. By multi-disciplinary frame of reference, I’m referring to the client’s employment value proposition, competitive environment, legal & regulatory environment, technological capabilities, financial resources, cost objectives, people capabilities, and other business dimensions.

Here is an example of what I mean about intersections and multi-disciplinary frames of reference that I know you will appreciate.  I admire what PTO Exchange is doing by addressing the intersections between vacation plan design, accumulated vacation balances, the accompanying financial liability, employee well-being, and the user experience with the benefit program. PTO Exchange addresses multiple issues with an engaging, easy-to-use platform. 

The competitive landscape, future talent needs, economic pressures, culture, and business operating models vary between industries and organizations within the same industry. Understanding these factors is important in absence management and other HR domains. Plug-and-play solutions rarely work well. Adaptations to best practices and a forward-looking perspective are essential.

Technology, continuing education, networking, and contributing to innovation keep me informed about evolving trends and engaged in this profession. I enjoy it, and it enriches my life. 

At Segal, we aim to deliver “trusted advice that improves lives.” We go well beyond the Summary Plan Description, the personnel policy, the salary structure, financial statements, and other work products to consider how the client is impacting its workforce and family members today and in the future.

As employee benefit plan professionals, we touch many lives directly and indirectly. Doing so with integrity and expertise and collaborating with others makes for a rewarding career. 

You can connect with Segal on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). 

Learn more about PTO Exchange's partner program and how you can be a part of it.