Daily COVID-19 digest

How to wear a mask: Effective today, masks will be mandatory for all employees, volunteers and contractors in collections events, and for individuals who cannot maintain a two-metre physical distance from others in non-collections environments. Knowing how to properly put on and remove a mask is key to your safety and limiting the spread of the virus. To help, we have created a guide to provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to do so correctly.

New system for snacks in collections events: To support our decision to implement mandatory masks for donors, we will be introducing a new system in our refreshment areas effective May 11. To limit the risk of spreading the virus, donors will be asked to sit for five minutes in the refreshment area with their masks on after their donation to rest and to allow collections staff to monitor their wellbeing. After their rest period, they will be encouraged to grab a snack and refreshment to consume after they leave the donor centre. If a donor chooses not to spend time in the recovery area they would be offered a snack and refreshment to go. This measure is one of many we are taking to protect the safety employees, volunteers and donors.

Mental Health Week: Don’t just get loud, #GetReal. From May 4—10, Mental Health Week helps to shift perceptions about mental health and promote behaviours and attitudes that foster wellbeing. It should come as no surprise, that this year’s theme is “social connection”. As we live through the uncertainty of the global pandemic, it is time to be open about how we’re really doing and lean on others for support. To do just that, our Healthy Workplace team will be hosting a 30-minute webinar for employees to discuss tips, coping strategies and warning signs and how to access and leverage the many resources available to support your wellbeing. We want to make it easy for you to join the discussion, so we will be hosting this live event four times this week to accommodate different schedules and time zones. Visit the employee portal to register. We look forward to seeing you there.

Your feedback is important: Our leadership team would like to thank all employees who participated in our last pulse survey. As our response to COVID-19 evolves, we want you to feel supported and that your concerns are being heard. We are committed to being as transparent with you as possible — we are creating a dedicated page on Connect where employees can access survey trends and responses from our leadership team. Keep an eye out for a link to that page later this week.

The result from our last survey showed that overall most employees agree Canadian Blood Services cares about their wellbeing (84 per cent), listens to their concerns (78 per cent) and most were effectively able to balance work and life (78 per cent). To ensure we truly understand how employees are feeling and are continuously improving supports for employees, we will be checking in with you every two weeks. Please take a moment to fill out this week’s short survey (one minute). We have heard your concerns and have adjusted our timeframes to give you more time to participate — the survey will remain open until Friday, May 8 at 12 p.m. ET.

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