SKOKIE, Ill.-- One hundred percent of HR managers polled agreed that training is a critical component to keeping long-term care communities survey ready and improving compliance, according to the LeadingAge HR Training and Staff Development Survey -- a 2011 census of U.S. senior care HR managers.

"Not surprisingly, participants reported that the most critical challenges facing their HR and training staff today were time, money and resources," said Sharon Parver, staff coordinator for the LeadingAge HR Professionals Listserv. "As one of the leading national associations focused on innovative practices to serve the aging population, LeadingAge is constantly exploring best practices and information to share with our members."

The survey, sponsored by Upstairs Solutions, an online education leader in senior care, found that online training appears to be on the rise for the long-term care industry. While the majority (51%) only uses online training for 0-25% of their training needs, respondents said that they anticipate usage to increase in 2012. Additionally, 52% of those using online training witnessed cost savings as a result with regard to travel, over-time, etc.

"Many of the HR managers surveyed indicated that online training was a relatively new initiative for their communities, but that they wanted to increase the usage based on high levels of acceptance by staff" said Tamar Abell, principal at Upstairs Solutions. "Participants also highlighted that limited time and financial resources are the greatest challenges and noted that online training helps address those challenges." The research also showed that while the majority (69%) expect their H.R. budgets to remain the same in 2012, more anticipate their budgets will increase (23%) versus decrease (8%).

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About LeadingAge's HR Training and Staff Development Survey
The objective was to determine training benchmarks and staff development challenges facing HR professionals in the long-term care industry today. The 65 respondents were generated by LeadingAge's list serve of 400+ non-profit HR professionals in the long-term care industry. Those polled represent organizations with locations ranging from one to 31 facilities with employees ranging from 50 to 650. Online responses were collected between August and October 2011.

About Upstairs Solutions
Upstairs Solutions is a provider-owned company with the mission to continually raise the bar in senior care training. The company offers more than 150 online courses, specifically developed for senior care, and an easy-to-use record-keeping system (LMS) to manage and track training, licenses and competencies. Upstairs Solutions' online training is cheat-proof and uses multimedia to create engaging and interactive courses for orientation, CEUs, compliance training and in-service instruction.