The Horticultural Trades Association, on behalf of the Access All Areas group, has launched a new industry-wide employee survey for people working in environmental horticulture and landscaping. 

Open to anyone working in the sector, the survey aims to build a clearer picture of today's workforce and identify opportunities to make the sector more welcoming and inclusive by capturing the experiences and perspectives of as many employees as possible across a wide range of roles, backgrounds, and career pathways.

Horticulture Industry Employer Workforce Survey & Horticulture: The Industry Employee Survey is being delivered by the HTA on behalf of the Access All Areas (AAA) Group, a partnership of organisations from across horticulture, landscaping, arboriculture, and garden media working together to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion across the industry.

Open to anyone working in horticulture and landscaping, the anonymous survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. It is designed to capture the experiences and perspectives of people working throughout the industry, whatever their role, background or career path. This includes those working in garden retail, plant production, landscaping and grounds maintenance, garden design, forestry, garden tourism, technical horticulture, garden goods manufacturing, garden media and industry service providers.

The research will update the AAA Group's first industry survey, carried out in 2023, helping the group understand where progress has been made and where further action is needed. This individual employee survey also follows a separate employer workforce survey conducted with businesses across the sector.

The survey explores:

• Who makes up today's environmental horticulture and landscaping workforce.
• Experiences and attitudes towards inclusion within the workplace.
• Awareness of, and participation in, equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
• Factors that help or hinder people feeling welcome and able to thrive in the industry.

Responses will be anonymous and confidential, will not be identifiable in the analysis or published findings, and will be handled in line with the Market Research Society's Code of Conduct.

Jennifer Pheasey, Director of Policy & Public Affairs at the Horticultural Trades Association, and co-chair of the Access All Areas Group said: "This survey is about listening to the people who make our industry what it is. Whether you work in retail, growing, landscaping, garden design, manufacturing, research and development, arboriculture, garden media or another part of environmental horticulture, your voice matters.

"We want to invite as many people to take part as possible so we have the best understanding of the industry's workforce and the strongest evidence base we can gather for future action. We encourage everyone to complete the survey and share it with colleagues and contacts across the sector."

The survey is open now and can be completed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M3V2L3W

The HTA and the Access All Areas Group are encouraging businesses, organisations and individuals across the industry to complete the survey and share it with colleagues, contacts and industry friends, helping ensure as many voices as possible are represented in the findings.