Your Digest

Townhall June 29: Tune in for an update on COVID-19 measures at Canadian Blood Services

Our next live town hall event is coming up Wednesday, June 29, 1–2 p.m. ET. Join our CEO, Dr. Graham Sher along with his guest panellists; Isra Levy, VP of medical affairs and innovation, Andrew Pateman, VP of people, culture and performance and Rick Prinzen, chief supply chain officer and VP donor relations. Please submit questions to communications@blood.ca with the subject line ‘TOWNHALL’ or use this anonymous form by end of day, today. You can also submit questions live after joining on June 29 through the meeting link in your Outlook invitation. A recording of the townhall will be available on the employee portal and the Connect on the Go app within 24 hours of the event.

Requests for ergonomic assessments made easier on ITHelps

Your health and wellness are priorities for Canadian Blood Services. This includes good ergonomics in your workspace which can help improve your mobility, your productivity, create a better safety culture and boost overall employee experience. Employees are now able to request an ergonomic assessment through our IT Service Management app (ITSM), making it easier and more efficient for employees to find and access the request form. Visit Connect for step-by-step instructions to access the form or go directly to your ITHelps app on Connect.

Asking questions helped this employee survive cancer

National Cancer Wellness Awareness Day is on June 26, and Terry Abrams, a strong advocate for cancer screening and prevention and logistics driver with our Kelowna mobile team, shares his story about surviving a cancer diagnosis. He stresses the importance of talking to your doctor about any possible family history that could impact your own health outcomes. “I am alive and well today because I asked questions,” he says. “I’d like to see that my family at Canadian Blood Services remains happy and healthy too.” Visit Connect to read Terry’s story about resilience and paying attention to your health and wellness.

A winning season with Hockey Gives Blood

Hockey Gives Blood — one of our Partners for Life — ended their season with a win. 50 player ambassadors across the country raised awareness of the need for blood and plasma among their family, friends, fans and the public. Some organized fundraising campaigns, others organized group donations or got teammates to join the stem cell registry. Together, Hockey Gives Blood participants contributed 468 blood donations and 44 plasma donations and 60 people became first-time donors this season. The season wrapped with an emotional presentation of the Dayna Brons Honorary Award to Logan Nijhoff of the Regina Pats. Visit Connect to learn more.

Kickstart the season with our Summer Wellness Boost

Throughout the month of July, you can participate in our Summer Wellness Boost, focused on making healthy choices through nostalgia, play and mindful fun. To sweeten the deal, participants will have a shot at weekly draws for branded Canadian Blood Services swag. Employees will receive an email at the beginning of each week that outlines the theme, such as movement and memory, physical health and gratitude. Sign up here to start your summer off with some healthy fun.

Question of the day

If we are working in the office part of the time, can we have the same equipment set up at our workstation and our home office?

The Return to Office project was set up to safely welcome employees back to the office if they needed to or wanted to. Employees coming back are expected to work with the equipment that exists in the workspace. If an employee decides to come back 4–5 days a week, they would bring back any equipment they may have taken from the office when they started working from home. Essentially, their workspace would look as it did before the pandemic.

Any employee who is working in the office part of the time or occasionally (less than 4 days a week) will be expected to be flexible and travel back and forth with their laptop, using the equipment made available at the workspace they booked.

There is no plan for the organization, under the Return to Office project, to duplicate home and office set-ups for each employee. As we plan for hybrid work experience in the near future, considerations like office equipment will be reviewed. If you require support with using your existing technology or equipment, or if you would like to request an ergonomics assessment, please go to ITHelps.

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.