What is Key person risk?
Operations, IT, cybersecurity. A plain-English definition for Australian business owners.
Key person risk is the exposure a business carries when critical knowledge, relationships or capability sit with one individual — if that person is suddenly unavailable, revenue, operations or compliance are immediately impaired.
In SMEs the key person is very often the owner, but it can equally be the one bookkeeper who understands the payroll or the technician holding all the system passwords. Standard mitigations are documentation (SOPs), cross-training, access held by roles rather than individuals, and in some cases key person insurance. It is the most common finding when SMEs assess their operational resilience.
In a connected back office this sits with the Operations hub, where Valont runs it support, cybersecurity and cloud systems for Australian SMEs as one team. The full definition set is on the glossary.
Talk to an Advisor
General information, not advice. For how this applies to your business, talk it through with a Trusted Advisor or start with the Business Health Check.