Hiring company secretarial services is an extremely important part of your company’s growth. It provides you with hours of free time every week that you can spend focusing on other areas of the business. As a result, it’s important that you find the right person for the job. In Singapore, not only is having a corporate secretary important, but it’s a legal requirement. This individual will be the person who helps manage your day to day operations, whilst also ensuring that all of your paperwork is in order. Although there are many fantastic corporate secretaries available in the market, there are some that simply may not be up to the task. It’s important that you spot such individuals throughout the recruitment process where possible to ensure you find the best individual for the job. Here are some of the key red flags you should be wary of when looking for corporate secretarial services.
Disorganisation
Although it may seem obvious, disorganisation is a huge red flag when looking for a company secretary. A large part of the job requires organisation. Whether that be organising your internal files, dates and times for your meetings, or organising the key dates for document submission. If you’ve hired a corporate secretary who lacks organisation, it’s time to find a replacement. A lack of organisation with your company secretarial services can have severe consequences at every level of your business. For example, if your secretary fails to effectively plan your meetings you may find yourself double-booked, unprepared or you may simply miss meetings altogether. This will be very bad for your corporate reputation and could even lose you a client. At the same time, should your corporate secretary fail to submit paperwork on the due dates, you could soon find yourself in trouble with the law. This could result in unexpected fines or even court cases should anything go wrong. As a result, organisation is the one trait all company secretarial services must offer.
Lack Of Time Management
As the manager of your business, it’s important that you manage your own time very effectively. With so much to do every day, you must manage your time down to the minute to ensure you get everything you need completed. As a result, you don’t want to wait around for your corporate secretary to be on time or complete a task. You want everything ready when you need it throughout the day, allowing you to get on with your routine. If your company secretarial services lack time management, you may soon rub off on you too. You may be late to meetings, interviews and events which will look very bad on your company. Make sure that you hire an individual who has effective time management. This will give you full peace of mind that everything you need is ready when you need it, rather than having to wait around or even do it yourself.
Poor Communication
Communication is at the heart of all company secretarial services. Without effective levels of communication both within and outside of your operations, your operations can fall apart altogether. You want to make sure that your corporate secretary has effective communication skills. This includes listening as well presenting a particular point of view, opinion or statement effectively. A great corporate secretary will be able to effectively communicate no matter who they’re speaking to. This could be the CEO of another company, one of your team members or even you yourself. You want to be confident that you can always fully understand the point they’re making, as this will help to avoid any confusion that could result in other problems.
Lack Of Integrity
There’s a reason why “yes men” are no good for the organisation. You want to have a company secretary who will be honest with you no matter what. This individual should be someone who you can bounce ideas from and get an honest opinion. Not somebody who simply says yes to every idea you come up with. After all, none of us are able to come up with fantastic ideas 100% of the time. If you find that the secretary you want to hire simply says yes to every idea, it’s likely that they simply won’t be an asset to your business. Instead, find an individual who will challenge you (when necessary) and will also take full responsibility (and make corrections) should they ever make a mistake.
Poor Commitment
There is nothing worse than investing in an individual only for them to leave the business after a few months. Not only does this cost you a significant amount in money, but it can also disrupt your day to day operations. You want to look for a company secretary who is with you for the long run. An individual who will work with you year in, year out, no matter how successful the company is. Working with an individual for a long time will ensure they fully understand the organisational structure of your business which will allow them to make better decisions throughout their daily activities. Always make sure that an individual is looking for something long term when hiring company secretarial services. You don’t want to hire an individual, pay for their training and then they leave the following year.
