Daily COVID-19 digest

What did you think of our live Q&A? We are constantly looking at ways we can improve our live events. To help us continue to make these events as engaging as possible, please take a moment to fill out this short survey (one minute). Your input is valuable and helps us improve your experience. We’ve also changed the way we produce the recording of the event for those of you who can’t join us live. You can now access the recording on your COVID-19 employee portal and jump to the questions that interest you the most by clicking on the question bar directly below the video. Stay tuned for details on our next live Q&A coming soon. 

Stories from National Blood Donor Week: During National Blood Donor Week we are celebrating donors for their generosity and commitment and sharing the stories of the lives they have touched. After 48 years, Reverend Kevin Cox returned to donate blood to help patients during COVID-19. He says, “when faced with hard times, the church community always asks, ‘what then shall we do’? The community was afraid and focused on everything they couldn’t do anymore because of the lockdown — I decided that donating blood was the one thing we could do.” Read more about Kevin’s story on blood.ca/stories.

Wellness Wednesday — finding peace through paddling: Even though summer vacation is looking a bit different this year, it is important that employees take a break from juggling work and personal commitments to take vacation days – even if it is just a long weekend here and there. This is critical to help manage the stresses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and manage our health and well-being.

That’s why Katie O’Brien, Senior Consultant, Wellness, Diversity & Inclusion is back with her son Henry for another edition of Wellness Wednesday to share some tips around one “staycation” staple that everyone should try at least once this summer – canoeing in the great outdoors. With the fast pace, digital overload and little downtime that many employees have been facing, heading into nature to do some paddling could be the perfect way to (momentarily) escape some of the chaos of life.

Question of the day: What sort of self-reflection and conversations are occurring internally regarding diversity, equity and inclusion? How are we empowering employees at all levels to participate in these discussions?

At this juncture, and through recent conversation with the leadership community, I admit that we do not have all the answers to advance diversity, equity and inclusion. At the same time, we have an obligation to start with what we know and learn by moving forward.

We have been reflecting on this question over the past week and recognize that systemic inequity has led to underrepresentation of members of racialized and ethnic communities in our leadership ranks. We are committed to uncovering and tackling unseen barriers for members of marginalized communities in our organization. This includes an examination of our recruitment, onboarding, promotion and other talent processes.

Beyond this, we acknowledge that addressing our biases will require humility and an active commitment to managing them.

Many of our employees are members of marginalized and racialized communities. We know that we must do better by providing them with a forum to shape our thinking and execution. Without their voice and co-leadership our internal reflection and plans will be incomplete.

In the short term and with appropriate timing, we will action the following: Release our pre-planned organization wide survey to explore the human differences present within our teams and divisions. This survey will explore diversity, equity and inclusion as related to, but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disabilities and social class. Based on this data we will also examine how to bring forward the voice of employees from racialized and ethnic communities in the appropriate fora.

Andrew Pateman, VP, People Culture and Performance

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.