Company secretaries are different from general secretaries or administrative staff. By law, public companies must have a company secretary, and, while private companies aren’t required to appoint one, many do because they recognise the importance of employing someone who is responsible for making sure the company is meeting legal requirements.

Typical duties
Company secretaries are typically responsible for:

• convening and providing administration for annual general meetings (AGMs): for example, producing agendas, taking minutes, conveying decisions and handling meeting correspondence.
• providing legal, financial and/or strategic advice during and outside of meetings.
• advising directors and members of the senior leadership team on corporate governance matters.
• keeping up to date with regulatory or statutory changes and policies that might affect the organisation.
• ensuring that policies are up to date and are approved.
• communicating with external professionals involved in corporate governance, such as auditors.
• in public companies, acting as a point of contact and building good relationships with shareholders.
• implementing processes or systems to help ensure good management of the organisation or compliance with legislation.

In some organisations, the work of a company secretary is carried out by an existing member of staff (such as an office manager , for example) alongside other work. In addition, some organisations outsource their company secretary work (rather than employing a company secretary in-house) and so company secretaries can also be self- employed or work for an agency offering company secretariat services.
Qualifications and training required
You can become a company secretary with either school leaver or degree-level qualifications. Entry-level company secretary vacancies, sometimes known as assistant or trainee roles, often require an undergraduate degree, but a few are open to school leavers and apprentices. Where a degree is requested, subjects related to law, finance and business are advantageous but not always essential.
Company secretaries for public companies need to have chartered accountancy, management accountancy or legal qualifications, have (typically) at least five years’ experience in a similar role or be a member of the Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland.

Key skills for company secretaries

• Strong  organisational and administrative skills  .
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Enthusiasm for keeping up to date with legislation .
• Communication and interpersonal skills.
• Discretion and diplomacy.