Code Updates: Company Secretary
Often when looking on companies house or in the accounts you will see someone or an organisation listed as company secretary. Understanding what this role helps give you an insight into the structure of a business.
Starting for small companies, an accountant or business startup specialist often support a business to navigate the legal requirements of setting up a new business. This could include registering with the applicable authorities (such as companies house), producing the requirements company articles or other such administrative jobs. The company secretary will also often produce the financial accounts and be responsible for overseeing the submission of other important documents such as confirmation statements. As such for small companies you will often see an accountant listed as the company secretary. They will not have any influence on the strategic direction of the company or take a salary / profit share and will be remunerated based on the services they provide. For smaller companies this fee is likely to be in the range of £800-£2000 per year. On code though we have set this as 0 income and instead of searching for a prospect who working in the legal / accounting profession who is listed as a company secretary (often for multiple businesses) you are advised to use the specialist roles salary data to evaluate them as opposed to board roles.
The role of a company secretary in larger companies though is more prominent. As per the CGI the company secretary has a crucial role within an organisation:
The company secretary is a strategic position of considerable influence at the heart of governance operations within an organisation. Governance describes the way that an organisation is directed and controlled, which includes a company's strategy and decision making, how it achieves its aims, and ensuring that all activities undertaken comply with legal, ethical and regulatory requirements. Company secretaries have a broad skill set – corporate law, finance, governance, strategy and corporate secretarial practice – and they advise a company's board in these key areas, providing support to the Chair, CEO and non-executive directors.
By becoming a company secretary they will have:
· access to a wide variety of different job roles across many sectors
· a diversity of responsibilities
· a fast-track to high-level roles, working with the board
· the potential to earn six figure salaries
· the opportunity to work overseas.
https://www.cgi.org.uk/professional-development/careers/being-a-company-secretary
On code we now have added company secretary salary data for medium / large companies and this is found under board roles / company secretary available for the UK, US and AUS.
Hope this blog is useful and provides some additional insight.
