What Matters to You in a Blood Donor Center? A Workforce-Centered Approach to Staff Engagement, Retention, and Donor Service Excellence

Presented by Fiona Gaskell, Head of Nursing, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS); Debbie McNaughton, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service

Executive Summary

Healthcare organizations worldwide face increasing workforce challenges, including recruitment difficulties, retention concerns, burnout, and growing operational demands. Within blood collection organizations, these challenges are amplified by mobile operations, extensive travel requirements, evolving donor expectations, and a highly specialized workforce.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) explored whether a simple but powerful question, “What matters to you?” could provide meaningful insight into the employee experience and identify opportunities to improve engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational culture.

Their findings reveal that employees consistently value many of the same things regardless of role or tenure: respect, fairness, meaningful recognition, strong team relationships, supportive leadership, and manageable workloads. The project demonstrates that structured listening initiatives can uncover actionable opportunities for improvement while reinforcing a culture in which employees feel heard and valued.