Daily COVID-19 digest

Your new pulse survey — we are listening: Your ongoing feedback is important. Our leadership team would like to thank all employees who continue to participate in our biweekly pulse surveys. As our response to COVID-19 evolves, we want you to feel supported and that your concerns are being heard. To see how your experience is changing, we have launched another check-in survey today. Please take a moment to fill it out (one minute) — the survey is also available on Connect and will remain open until Friday, May 22 at 12 p.m. ET. To view past survey results and responses from our leadership team, visit our pulse survey page on Connect . You can access this through the homepage by going to “About you” and clicking on “Employee support”.

Stories from our frontline: During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re bringing you stories of our employees who continue to work on the front lines. Tammy Whitteker is part of the Ottawa team which processes and tests stem cells for lifesaving transplants. When we asked her, what makes her work so rewarding, she told us, “We’re making a difference from behind the scenes, executing the science to prepare stem cells for transplant. I love my team. We are standing shoulder to shoulder cohesively (figuratively of course!) to make that difference”. Read more about Tammy’s story on blood.ca/stories.

What does wellness mean to you? Since the pandemic disrupted life as we know it, we’ve been asking employees across the country how they’re keeping well amidst new feelings of stress and uncertainty.  “Wellness” means different things to different people and we’ve been sharing some of these interpretations through our weekly Wellness Wednesday series. This is an initiative created for staff, by staff, so we encourage you to email communications@blood.ca with the subject line “WW” to let us know what it means to you — and join your colleagues in sharing the unique ways in which you find balance. Whether it’s gardening, arts and crafts, dancing, cooking, or simply finding effective ways to detox from social media, we want to see and share all the creative ways you are practicing self-care and achieving wellness during these unprecedented times. Your tips may be just what a colleague across the country needs to manage stress.

Question of the day: As an immune compromised employee that currently works from home, when things start to open what considerations are being given to employees who may not be able to return to an office?

Whether it be for health reasons or caring for a loved one, as part of our return to office planning, one of the key assumptions is that employees will be at different states of readiness to return. Some employees will be unable to return to the office because their children are out of school, they may be immunocompromised or living with someone that is, or they may feel fear to return.

These are all factors that are being considered as we develop a plan to safely ask employees to return to the office. We hope employees can take comfort in knowing that in addition to an overarching plan, we are defining a process to assess individual needs for remote work or returning to an office environment.

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.