Are You In? – Employee Giving at TBRHSC Re-Energized by New Committee

2,800 people work at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre – all with a common goal – to help patients heal.

No matter their role, from front-line healthcare, to laundry, to research, everyone has an impact.

It’s that type of thinking that’s helped re-energize employee giving at the Health Sciences Centre. Chair of the Employee Giving Committee, Robert Scott Srigley, said, “It’s an honour to be part of a solution. I think that anyone, regardless of their role, can make a difference to the type of care that’s provided at the Health Sciences Centre.”

Started in the Spring of 2015, the Employee Giving Committee includes employees from across the Health Sciences Centre, a Patient Family Advisor, as well as employees from the Health Sciences Foundation. “We have a really great cross-section of people on our committee,” explained Srigley, “who understand the different dynamics of the Health Sciences Centre. We’re a really positive and outgoing group too, which I think you have to be when you’re trying to grow a program.”

Their role is to guide the Employee Giving Program at the Health Sciences Centre – which includes everything from participating in events, recruiting Department leaders and recommending the plan for disbursement of funds from the Employee Giving Fund.

“This year, one of our first acts as a committee was to host an Employee Appreciation BBQ at the end of June, which was sponsored by Dr. Stewart Kennedy. I was completely blown away by the number of people that attended and it was really rewarding for me and the rest of the committee to talk to employees, find out where they work and have a sense of communal pride in where we work,” remarked Srigley. “Plus, we got to announce that, thanks to employee donors, this year we were able to purchase 8 new vital sign monitors for use throughout the facility.”

All employees of the Health Sciences Centre are given the opportunity to become an employee donor and make a donation to the Health Sciences Foundation through payroll deduction. The choice of where funds are directed are completely up to the employee and can be to any area they wish, from paediatrics, to cancer, to renal, to neurology…the list goes on. However, there’s now a new fund choice – and that’s the Employee Giving Fund. “This fund is a general healthcare fund where employees can choose to designate their gift,” explained Srigley. “Each year, the Employee Giving Committee will review the funds and decide, in consultation with the Health Sciences Foundation, where to direct the funds. I think it gives employees a real sense of accomplishment when they can look back and say ‘Hey, we bought this together’.” As an added bonus, Tbaytel has generously committed to matching every employee donation up to $10,000.

Himself an employee for 22 years, starting at McKellar Hospital, and now a Senior Information Technologist in Information Technology at the Health Sciences Centre, Srigley said of his ongoing gift, “This is a way for me to assist our clinical professionals to obtain equipment that will allow them to do their job. I see the need and it’s important to me that I’m not only buying equipment, but I’m also helping out my colleagues in their day-to-day work. All of us, at some point, are touched by disease, or need some type of care and it’s a natural fit for me to want to help.”

“I think that, overall, people do care and want to make a difference. Every little bit helps, because, when you think about it, if every employee gave $10 per pay, in one year, we’d have raised $728,000! Together, we can really make something happen,” enthused Srigley.

To hear more about why employees give, check out this video featuring many members of the Employee Giving Committee at: www.healthsciencesfoundation.ca/employeegiving