Press Release

Company secretaries get their rewards

9 May 2008: The 2008/09 edition of recruitment firm CSS’s annual salary survey has found that work/life balance and job satisfaction are key drivers for company secretaries, followed by career development. The survey reports that 37 per cent of respondents now have the option of flexible working. The survey calls this ‘an encouraging statistic’, and suggests that the development has ‘real advantages’ for both employers and employees by making company secretarial careers ‘accessible to a more diverse population’ and improving retention.

The survey also reveals that remuneration at the very top of the profession is extremely healthy, with 40 per cent of respondents at Company Secretary level in the FTSE 100 earning over £200,000 a year. The form of remuneration is changing, however, with more company secretaries in the UK’s top companies receiving more of their overall reward in the form of bonuses. This, the survey reckons, supports the view that businesses are increasingly acknowledging the commercial value of the role.

Additionally, the survey notes that more respondents than ever before hold a first degree, suggesting that a company secretarial career is becoming more appealing to graduates – to both those who have studied law at university and graduates from other disciplines.

CSS Director Caroline Evans firmly believes that the company secretarial profession is in the ascendant.

‘The increasing importance of good corporate governance and its high profile as a business issue is creating a real opportunity for able individuals already within the field to leverage their commercial value and better negotiate for the working lifestyle they want. This will, in turn, encourage further growth in the numbers embarking on a career as a company secretary’ she comments.

‘As this survey suggests, more and more employers are recognising the commercial value of having a qualified company secretary on board.’ added Roger Dickinson, Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), the qualifying body for company secretaries ‘It confirms that the company secretarial career is one of the most rewarding in terms of the renumeration and the flexibility it can offer the individual.’

The full survey is available here

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