Competence of Older Employees

Abstract

Across the world, the number of old adults has grown significantly over recent decades. This has raised a number of questions related to the availability of human resources in the present day. One current concern, visible in society, is related to older employees’ competence and performance. Often, older employees are perceived as less competent and perceived that they perform less well than younger employees, but this image does not meet the reality. Studies related to older employees’ performance show that certain aspects of performance are either equal to, slightly lower, or even higher than those of younger employees. Important elements that make the performance of older adults comparable with the performance of younger adults, among others, include experience, and level of past and present cognitive and physical stimulation; elements with very large interpersonal variability.