Your digest

November 9, 2021

Every Tuesday and Friday, we invite you to read important updates, valuable information, and inspiring stories from across our organization. Please reach out to communications@blood.ca with your questions and suggestions on how we can better inform and support you.

Here is the latest.

See past digests

Remembrance Day 2021

This Remembrance Day, we join Canadians from coast to coast — and beyond — in recognizing and remembering Canada’s active, serving members and our population of veterans who have served on many different missions throughout this country’s history. Read more on Connect about our long-standing history and partnership with the Department of National Defence. You can commemorate Remembrance Day by:

Wearing a poppy
Attending an online or in-person event on Nov. 11
Sharing your Remembrance Day story on Yammer
Re-sharing our national post on your personal social channels
Reading more about the history of blood in war zones, including Canada’s contributions and ongoing support for soldiers who need transfusions
Learning more about Canada’s diverse military history
Honouring Canada’s military by booking an appointment to donate blood, plasma or platelets or by joining the national stem cell registry

Canadian flags to be raised, re-lowered this week

Flags at Canadian Blood Services facilities have flown at half-mast nationwide since the summer, in response to the discovery of unmarked graves at several former residential school sites across the country. Following the guidance of the federal government, our flags remained lowered on Monday to mark Indigenous Veterans Day and were raised to full-mast in the evening. They will be lowered again on Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. On Nov. 12, our flags will fly at full mast once again but will be lowered for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation every Sept. 30 and throughout the year as appropriate.

Reflecting on our commitment to patients this World Quality Week

Canadians hold our processes and systems to the highest standards ― and they deserve no less. That’s why we’re dedicated to learning, discovering and implementing better ways to work, every day. In celebration of World Quality Week (November 8–12), we’re reflecting on how our commitment to quality helps Canadian patients. Read on Connect why and how what we do matters. It matters for recipients. It matters for donors. And it matters for millions of Canadians across the country. Our Quality Policy Engagement Toolkit is an excellent resource to help you understand how our quality principles help all of us in our daily work — and how each of us has a role to play.

Recording of the Nov. 4 live town hall now available

Employees who were unable to attend our latest town hall with Graham can now watch the recording of the event on our COVID-19 employee portal. Thank you to all who submitted questions for this session. As is sometimes the case, we weren't able to get to all of the employee questions submitted, so we will continue to provide responses to outstanding questions in future installments of Your Digest. Have a question you’d like to ask us? Submit it to communications@blood.ca.

Question of the Day: Is there an update on re-opening gym spaces?

We understand that the continued closure of our fitness facilities is frustrating for some employees. We also recognize and appreciate that the availability of gym spaces is important to employees’ physical and mental health.

However, to ensure the safety and well-being of all employees, onsite gym spaces will remain closed. We are disappointed that we are still not able to open these spaces, however, we cannot in good conscience increase the risk to our teams that the reopening of these spaces could introduce.

Based on National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) guidance, there is insufficient evidence on the duration of the protection of COVID-19 vaccines and the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing asymptomatic infection and reducing transmission. In addition, our gym spaces are not set up to accommodate many people and we don’t have the facilities resources at this time to monitor and sanitize the spaces or set up an appropriate booking system.

The COVID-19 program is reviewing all safety measures and protocols with a view to amending those that might be refined without increased risk to employees, and this includes gym spaces. The program will provide guidance for the Return-to-Office team to consider when determining how and when gym spaces might re-open safely.

Considerations include: air filtration, size of gyms, capacity limits, availability of the facilities teams to maintain additional space and the need for a booking system. More information will be shared soon. In the meantime, if you are feeling overwhelmed and need a break for physical exercise, we encourage you to speak with your leader to build physical activity, such as a break for a walk outside, into your workday.

We thank those who have submitted questions about the re-opening of gym spaces. As part of our ongoing evaluation of gyms, we encourage employees to provide us with their views. Please send them to communications@blood.ca with the subject line “GYMS.” These comments will be sent to the COVID-19 Program to help inform future decisions on the re-opening of gyms. 

About Your Digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content to remind us that what we do matters. This information 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 