Your Digest

Reconciliation Action Plan Q&A sessions today and tomorrow

With the recent launch of our first-ever Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), we realize that many employees may have questions about our reconciliation journey with Indigenous peoples and communities. Employees are invited to attend an upcoming Q&A session for updates on our work regarding Indigenous engagement. Register for today, Tuesday, June 7, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. ET or Wednesday, June 8, 2:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET. Visit Connect to learn more about the RAP and how you can play a role in reconciliation.

New plasma donor centre opens in Ottawa, Ont.

Yesterday, employees and members of the public gathered for the official opening of the new Ottawa plasma donor centre at 110 Place d'Orléans Drive. Donated plasma is used to make lifesaving medications called plasma protein products that help thousands of patients in Canada. Patients depend on these medications to help treat a variety of rare, life-threatening, chronic and genetic conditions. If you're in the Ottawa area and eligible to donate plasma, please book an appointment at blood.ca or encourage others to become plasma donors. You can share the news of our new donor centre on social media using the hashtags #PlasmaForLife and #CanadasLifeline.

Preventing privacy breaches

We all use various safeguards such as passwords, encryption, policies, training and physical security to protect private information. However, one small step is sometimes overlooked, but can make a big difference in reducing the likelihood of a privacy incident. Our privacy officer, Sarah Johnson, says we should get into the habit of always performing a double-check when completing any action that involves personal information. This can be especially important when using email or other systems that autofill information. Take a few extra seconds to double-check that you are sending the email to the right person, or that the fax number is correct. Visit Connect to learn more.

Question of the day

When it comes to equality, it seems like there are many more development opportunities for ‘upper management’ employees. It was wonderful to see the recent announcements of organization-wide development tools such as LinkedIn Learning and meditation apps — thank you! What’s next in promoting equal development opportunities for all Canadian Blood Services employees?

We are committed to providing equitable access to development opportunities. While there are some development programs that are specifically targeted at leaders and focused on building people leadership skills, we want to make sure that development opportunities are available to support the continued learning and career growth of all employees.

Earlier this year we launched LinkedIn Learning as an enterprise-wide platform that provides all active employees with thousands of on-demand, high quality online learning courses. Coming later this year, we will be working on creating new learning pathways in LinkedIn Learning, which are a series of curated courses focused on a given topic. One of these learning pathways will be focused on aspiring leaders, which will be available to all employees.

We also have a number of other resources available to all employees to support their development, including an online career development toolkit and several assessments that are offered with one-on-one coaching support to help individuals identify their strengths, growth opportunities and development goals. You can find more information on the Development Resources page on Connect.

As we continue to expand our corporate employee development programs, we encourage everyone to complete an Individual Development Plan and discuss it with your leader. This will help to identify development opportunities that are specific to your needs and may be funded through the departmental budgets. If you have questions or feedback, please reach out to development@blood.ca.

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.

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