Sunrise Receives 2010 ALFA Best of the Best Award

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May 24, 2010, 02:00 ET

Leading industry association recognizes innovative training program

MCLEAN, Va., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE: SRZ) today announced that it has been awarded a 2010 Best of the Best Award from The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA), a national recognition reserved for the nation's most innovative and effective business practices in the senior living industry. ALFA honored Sunrise for its new team member training program, Sunrise University's Community Training KIOSKs, which moved the company's orientation program online. This is the second year in a row in which Sunrise has received accolades for its leading approach to team member training and development.

"We are honored to receive this recognition as Sunrise has long believed that providing our dedicated team members with dynamic and excellent training opportunities is a great way to help ensure high-quality care and service for our residents," says Mike Rodis, senior vice president of Human Resources for Sunrise. "Our teams are quickly adopting this new KIOSK technology and we look forward to seeing the positive results of this skill-building in all of our communities."

In 2009, Sunrise successfully piloted online orientation training in more than 40 communities via self-contained computer learning stations called Key Instructional Online Skills-based Knowledge centers or KIOSKs. A KIOSK in each community provides training, testing and tracking customized for each team member. Team members also have 24/7 access to a self-paced training program that prompts them to meet completion deadlines and gives immediate feedback on test results.

Since implementation, more than 55 percent of the pilot communities have exceeded the corporate compliance rate of 94 percent for timely completion of orientation training. The number of hours devoted to orientation has also been reduced since the launch of the KIOSKs, resulting in substantial cost savings for the company as well as providing team members more time to serve residents. Sunrise looks forward to introducing the new training method in all of its communities during the course of 2010.

"These innovations recognize companies that have put their imaginations to work to continually improve and streamline operations, enhance resident care and services, train and retain quality employees, and much more," says ALFA President and CEO Richard P. Grimes. "Plus, the industry-wide benefit of the Best of the Best Awards is the program's ability to multiply excellence as these and other companies in senior living adopt these best practices as their own."

Sunrise's winning strategy will be profiled further in a cover story of Assisted Living Executive's May/June 2010 issue. The ALFA 2010 Best of the Best Award winners will also be recognized at the ALFA 2010 Conference & Expo, May 25-27, in Phoenix.

About Sunrise Senior Living

Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean, Va.-based company, employs approximately 40,000 people. As of March 31, 2010, Sunrise operated 365 communities in the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, with a combined unit capacity of approximately 36,600 units. Sunrise offers a full range of personalized senior living services, including independent living, assisted living, care for individuals with Alzheimer's and other forms of memory loss, as well as nursing and rehabilitative services. Sunrise's senior living services are delivered by staff trained to encourage the independence, preserve the dignity, enable freedom of choice and protect the privacy of residents. To learn more about Sunrise, please visit http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com .

SOURCE Sunrise Senior Living