Your Digest

Flags at half-mast today in memory of those who lost their lives to COVID-19

Today, March 11, marks the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic. To honour the memory of those who lost their lives due to the virus, we have lowered our flags to half-mast today. In his latest blog post, our CEO Dr. Graham Sher shares his reflections on the many lives lost during the pandemic and the overall impact on individual lives and mental wellbeing. He also extends his thanks to employees for their adaptability throughout the last two years and shares an update on the organization’s commitment to improving the employee experience, taking into account key learnings from the pandemic.

Honouring a young hero on Green Shirt Day

Green Shirt Day, observed each year on April 7, honours the victims of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan that tragically took the lives of 16 of the 29 bus passengers. One of the passengers who lost his life was 21-year-old Logan Boulet, who had registered as an organ donor. The donation of his organs saved or improved the lives of six people. In the days and weeks that followed the tragedy, approximately 150,000 people registered to become organ donors, in what has now become known as the Logan Boulet Effect. Read Logan’s story, consider talking to your family about organ donation, and learn about the ways you can show support, including with the Green Shirt Day toolkit.

This week’s town hall: recording is now available/feedback survey

If you missed yesterday’s live town hall event (or want to watch again), you can access the recording on our employee portal. Thank you to all who submitted questions in advance and during the live event. As is often the case, the time allocated for this event wasn’t enough to answer all of the questions that were submitted. We will continue to provide responses to outstanding questions in future installments of Your Digest. Submit questions anytime to communications@blood.ca or use this form. Please take a moment to provide us with your feedback on this week’s town hall by completing this short survey (three minutes). Our goal is to provide you the easiest possible access to the most valuable information. Your insights play an important role in helping us to plan these sessions in a way that meets your needs. Please provide your response by Tuesday, March 11 at 4 p.m. ET. All answers will remain anonymous.

In case you missed it: International Women’s Day panel recording

You can now access the recording from the International Women’s Day panel event held earlier this week with some of our inspiring leaders. Learn more about the panelists, watch the recording here or listen to it on the Connect on the Go app.

Question of the day: With travel restrictions easing across the country, will business travel resume and/or is there any new guidance if employees must travel for work?

As the pandemic restrictions have evolved, we are amending our COVID-19 policies for authorization of business travel that is essential or important. The risks associated with travel will vary and approval will depend on the state of the pandemic. Therefore, employees still require review and approval above our normal processes until such time as the risk diminishes further.

Every effort should be made to conduct business virtually, however, when travel is considered the best option, it requires authorization from a director or a vice-president. Approvals can be granted by email and finalized by attaching a PDF of the email to the travel request in Concur, our travel booking system. You’re advised to not book travel too far in advance due to potential COVID-19 changes and to try booking within the 14–21-day window before travel for the best pricing. To request pandemic travel authorization, follow the steps outlined on Connect. If you need assistance to navigate the travel approval process, please contact the travel team at corporatecard@blood.ca.

About Your Digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content to remind us that what we do matters. This information can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.

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Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca.