Your digest

Save the date for Tuesday’s live townhall:

Join us on Tuesday, March 23 at 1 p.m. ET for the next live townhall with our CEO. Graham will be joined by Dr. Isra Levy, vice-president, medical affairs and innovation, and Judie Leach-Bennett, vice-president, general counsel and chief risk officer, to address your questions about approved vaccines, how Canadian Blood Services is advocating on your behalf has a high-priority health-care organization and other topics that are top of mind for you.

Click the meeting link in your Outlook invite to join live and let us know which topics you would like to discuss by sending your questions in advance to communications@blood.ca with the subject line “TOWNHALL.” Can’t make it? An event recording will be made available on your COVID-19 employee portal shortly following the live broadcast. We look forward to continuing these incredibly important discussions with you.

2021–2022 performance goals for non-unionized employees: With April just around the corner, we are planning for warmer weather, the newness of spring and the beginning of a new year in the performance management cycle. We’ve developed some new tools to support non-unionized employees and help leaders set performance goals for the 2021–2022 fiscal year, including resources to help mitigate bias, conduct virtual performance management and generate new performance documents to plan for the exciting year ahead. Head over to Connect to learn more.

Crash survivor makes first blood donation since traumatic injury: Nathan Olson was a regular blood donor before he became a blood recipient. He lost his left leg in a motorcycle crash in April 2020. This month, he made his first blood donation since the crash. “It’s different to be giving blood after receiving it,” says Nathan. “I know blood saves lives because it saved mine. And even though I don’t have a memory of the crash or the operations right afterward, I do remember receiving blood in the hospital later. Like when I was so tired and weak with low hemoglobin, and how much better I felt after a transfusion. It’s lifesaving. Life-improving. Life-changing.” Read more on blood.ca/stories.

Question of the day: How is Canadian Blood Services helping me access opportunities to get the COVID-19 vaccine in my area?

The vaccination roll-out across the country varies greatly among provinces and territories and from one local public health unit to the next. We know that inevitably, some employees may receive quicker access to the vaccine depending on where they live and their individual health considerations.

Although the varying approaches to eligibility and sequencing are out of our control, Canadian Blood Services is committed to:

• Advocating on your behalf and seeking prioritized access to the vaccine as a high-priority health-care organization in each jurisdiction. This includes requests for a centralized, coordinated approach to access in each jurisdiction, where possible. We are engaging with the appropriate government officials at all levels to ensure that our employees and volunteers receive the vaccine as quickly as possible when it is available in each jurisdiction.
• Conducting daily assessments of regional eligibility criteria and vaccine sequencing information and updating employees via the COVID-19 portal vaccine page as quickly as possible so you can take advantage of opportunities in your area. Details will also be communicated to individual sites when there is action required.
• Coordinating with local public health authorities as required. Should we be successful in securing coordinated regional access to the COVID-19 vaccine for our teams, Canadian Blood Services may be contacted by local public health to provide information directly regarding our eligible employees and volunteers for group registration. In these circumstances, we will make every effort to assist, including contacting affected teams and/or individuals directly or through their manager to secure consent to share information such as their name, contact information and any other information which may be requested by the local public health authority.

Unless you have personal considerations that meet vaccine eligibility criteria in your area, we encourage only operational frontline employees and volunteers to seek access to the COVID-19 vaccine as a high-priority health-care worker at this stage. We ask that employees who can work remotely remain patient until the appropriate opportunity in your jurisdiction becomes available.

We encourage all employees to continue to closely monitor local updates and take advantage of opportunities, outside of Canadian Blood Services efforts, available to you if you meet local eligibility requirements. For more information visit www.blood.ca/employees/vaccines. Our team is striving to update this page daily with the latest information available.

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About your digest

This 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.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more 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