A key person is someone whose death or disability would have a serious effect on a business’s future profits. A business can have one or more employees who make a vital contribution to its profitability. A person may be key to the business because they:
- have valuable sales contacts, which might be lost if they died
- are heavily involved in the development of a new product because of their knowledge and expertise. Without their input, the product launch might not go ahead
- are at the top in their line of work and have been time-consuming and expensive to recruit. It might be difficult and expensive to recruit their replacement