Tomorrow — live Q&A with our CEO:

Please join us tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET for a live Q&A with our CEO.  For details on how to participate, please see the Outlook invite you received last week. A recording of the event will be available on the employee portal for those of you who are unable to attend.

A reminder that we will be using Microsoft Teams Live Events which allows for live video, improved functionality to ask questions and does not limit the number of participants. To access on a company laptop or desktop, simply click the link in your Outlook invite join. If you are joining from a personal computer, tablet or mobile device, please review the instructions provided in the Outlook invite or see our attendee help guide for step-by-step instructions. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Your new employee wellness portal is here: COVID-19 is causing many of us to experience heightened levels of stress and increased risk of exposure to trauma. We want to support you and your loved ones by promoting preventative measures on platforms like Lifespeak and raising awareness about the tools and trusted resources available to support your wellbeing such as the employee assistance program. That’s why we are continuously updating our wellness portal to ensure we can support the changing needs of employees at this challenging time. Your new employee wellness portal now links to five separate subpages to help you navigate your needs, including sections on mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing. It also includes a section specifically dedicated to COVID-19. Let us know what you think of the new portal at thrive@blood.ca.

Maintaining employee pay: We are providing support for employees whose earnings have been reduced due to COVID-19.  We are happy to share that regular pay of pre-COVID hours of work will be maintained whether employees are currently working or on a paid leave of absence. This will apply retroactively to the beginning of the pandemic and more information on the implementation will be shared as details are confirmed. For more information on how this affects you, please speak with your PCP business partner. We will continue to revisit this decision as the pandemic evolves and provide more information as it becomes available.

Prioritizing childcare for essential workers: All provinces (excluding Nova Scotia) have prioritized access to childcare for essential service workers — including Canadian Blood Services employees. It is important to note that this measure is being managed exclusively by the provinces and that Canadian Blood Services is completely removed from the decision-making process. We encourage all essential employees with young children to review this chart for details on how to access more information about measures being taken in your area and how to apply.

About the daily digest

This daily digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  Things are moving quickly, so you can expect to hear from us daily. No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.   

Click here to read past editions of the daily digest. 

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