Your digest

March 30, 2021

We want to make it easy for employees to access the latest from Canadian Blood Services.  Every Tuesday and Friday, we will be bringing you important COVID-19 updates along with valuable information and inspiring stories about other parts of our operations.

We know things are rapidly changing; please remember you can always reach out to communications@blood.ca with your questions and suggestions on how we can better help employees.

Here is the latest.

See past digests

New video message from Graham — your voice is vital to our progress: Last week, our CEO had an opportunity to attend the BIPOC employee resource group to hear directly from our teams. Graham reflects on how employee feedback is helping to shape our ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion work. “No matter how you provide your feedback, it is important that we get it, that we listen and that you all have the sense that you can engage in shaping our work for the diversity, equity and inclusion future that we want to create,” says Graham. View the full video on Connect.

Adjustments to Your Digest schedule: The long weekend is just around the corner, and we hope that you get some much-needed time to disconnect and spend time with loved ones. We are making some adjustments to Your Digest schedule to accommodate the stat holidays:

Next edition: Thursday, April 1, 2021
Following edition: Friday, April 9, 2021

We will be back to our regular schedule the week of April 12. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to communications@blood.ca.

Preparing for performance appraisal conversations: With the fiscal year coming to close, many of you are preparing for performance management discussions with your teams and leaders. These conversations help us reflect and understand what goals we delivered on, where we can improve and how to strive for new opportunities in the year ahead. To support you and your preparation for these discussions, a number of resources are available on Connect. In addition to helping you understand the performance management process as a whole for both unionized and non-unionized employees, there are newer resources including guidelines for having these discussions virtually to help you lead performance conversations in our current environment. Learn more on Connect.

Question of the day: It has been a difficult time for the Asian and Pacific Islander community across North America. Many of us are experiencing extreme mental and physical distress. I am wondering what supports our organization can provide to employees who are feeling the full effects of the rise in race-based crime?

Canadian Blood Services stands with our Asian colleagues, donors and communities. We condemn any form of anti-Asian hate, violence and bigotry. We are deeply saddened and troubled by the rise of anti-Asian attacks and are committed to working with our teams, our partners and all Canadians to end racism in all forms.

As an organization, we are here to support our team members affected by anti-Asian hate. To those of you in this community, we recognize that there is great diversity with how you may be experiencing this issue — and we are committed to providing support to help you heal and prevent violence from being perpetrated in the future.

With the guidance of our partners, Feminuty and the Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, we’ve recently added new resources to our diversity, equity and inclusion page on Connect to support those affected and to help others listen, learn and grow a greater awareness and understanding of the struggles the Asian community is facing.

We encourage all of our teams to review the supports available including:

Fight COVID-19 Racism: A Canadian site that tracks/maps incidents of anti-Asian racism, discrimination and harassment. The site provides the opportunity for those experiencing these acts to share their stories and also provides a number of resources from other organizations to support Asian communities.

Cold Tea Collective: An online media platform focused on sharing stories and experiences of North American Asian millennials. Based out of Vancouver, B.C., but with writers across North America. They have a post on mental health support for the Asian Canadian community, which includes a number of resources and links for Asian Canadians, including those with mental health support services offered in different languages.

Asian Mental Health Collective: A North American platform focused on supporting mental health within Asian communities. Their site includes an Asian-Canadian Therapist Directory for those looking for support.

Elimin8hate: Provides anonymous and safe reporting for Asian-Canadians experiencing racially motivated attacks and provides public resources for those impacted by anti-Asian racism across North America.

We ask all of our teams to be an ally. Reach out and ask how your colleagues are doing. How are they feeling? Can you offer support? We all have a role in ending the senseless cycle of racism.

If you are struggling and are in need of support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to thrive@blood.ca for further guidance and resources available.

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.    

Click here to read past editions of your digest.    

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