“We are excited to share our new Gardenuity for Business website along with additional employee wellness benefits. Over the past few years, we have grown our B2B business and have had the privilege of growing with extraordinary leaders across the country, making the launch of our new Gardenuity for Business website that much more exciting.” – Doug Platts, COO Gardenuity Amdocs, BMO, Yelp, United Healthcare, Cigna, Microsoft, AMLI, and CareCentrix are a few of the organizations partnering with Gardenuity Business. Employees, residents, customers, and leaders have a wide range of options through Gardenuity for Business to support team building and healthy habits through gardens, plants, and gardening experiences.
We work with 500+ business clients, and we wanted to give them a destination to see the latest Gardenuity benefits, programs, products, and services in one place. As we grow, we are constantly adding premium products and services, including custom on-boarding programs and wellness workshops that bring gardening and well-being together for employees.
Doug Platts, Gardenuity’s COO, says the new on-boarding programs are a result of enterprise companies asking for ways to integrate new team members into the company culture that would work in both office and hybrid environments. “The program is being integrated as a way to onboard new employees, new residents at offices and multi-family complexes, as well as reboard employees back to the office.”
Gardenuity has grown not just as a benefit to engage company employees, but also as a way to help attract and retain talent. Gardening is globally recognized for its wellness benefits and it is well-noted that the act of gardening improves productivity, engagement, resilience, and mental and physical well-being.
“We work with organizations of very different sizes; we enjoy an 85% rebooking retention rate with our partners, and our goal is for them to have incredible experiences with Gardenuity,” says Doug Platts, and “launching the new Gardenuity for Business site makes it easier for new and existing corporate partners to review options and determine what is best for their organizations.”
Gardenuity’s co-founder, Donna Letier, says well-being is an ongoing focus for companies globally, and health benefits for companies are no longer siloed. They are looking for well-being benefits that are good for mental and physical health and the health of the planet. We are fortunate to work with health insurance companies and corporate leaders who recognize the wellness benefits of gardening. Many of the Gardenuity benefits are covered through their company wellness dollars.
According to the CDC, an estimated 90% of our healthcare spending goes towards treating mental health, stress, and other chronic conditions that are often diet related. It is estimated that 600 million people will have diabetes by 2035. “Well-being has risen to the forefront of health concerns, and business leaders are looking for opportunities that will help their employees,” Gardenuity COO Doug Platts shared in an HR conference.
“From the tolls of the pandemic to workplace anxieties and financial uncertainty, leaders are turning to Gardenuity to bring a new benefit to their colleagues and customers.”
Doug Platts, COO of Gardenuity
The rollout of Gardenuity for Business comes after steady year-over-year growth, signaling the company’s plan to continue growing as a wellness benefit for organizations and consumers across the country. Gardenuity CEO, Donna Letier, states, “We could not be more thrilled at the expansion of the mission of Gardenuity and to continue encouraging mental, physical, and earthly wellness to people who desperately need it.”
Attracting and retaining great talent, increasing employee engagement, improving overall health, and building community are both short-term needs and long-term goals for organizations. In addition to the measurable and tangible health and wellness benefits that Gardenuity delivers, the Gardenuity for Business site shares how organizations can use gardens and gardening experiences to help organizations drive employee engagement, retention, and well-being. Gardenuity’s high engagement and community satisfaction are driven, in part, by the number of customized services and products offered.
“We heard from our partners that they needed flexible, creative, smart employee wellness solutions that meet the evolving demands of the modern workforce,” said Platts. “Whether you’re at home or in the office, you should be able to access the physical and mental benefits that come from gardening – and even team up with coworkers to grow with each other.
Q&A with Doug Platts
Can you tell us a bit more about the new website?
The new Gardenuity for Business website provides an opportunity to tell the Gardenuity story, as well as how it impacts businesses and their employees on a much more comprehensive level.
The website allows us to showcase the different solutions we offer – from onboarding programs for new starters to sustainability initiatives – and how they can impact local communities or celebrate the world around Earth Day.
We are defining a new type of wellness benefit: Gardening as a Benefit with Gardenuity; and the new site helps wellness, benefits, and business leaders truly understand what this can mean, rather than trying harder to decipher the information from our consumer site Gardenuity.com.
What is new about Gardenuity for Business versus the workshops that were taking place for the past few years?
Over the past four years, Gardenuity has worked with health insurance providers and their clients, corporations across the United States, school districts, and federal or local governments to bring their employees the mental and physical wellness benefits of gardening.
During that time, we have seen the ways in which we collaborate with companies and their employees grow, from hosting workshops to bringing teams together (both virtually and in-person) to help them become more connected to each other. This wellness ritual has also led to the garden-inspired employee or client appreciation gifts that make a meaningful impact and share a “growing together” message.
Gardenuity for Business completely formalizes the full range of offerings and solutions that Gardenuity can provide for an organization and its employees.
Why do you think Gardenuity for Business is important?
Organizations need to evolve how they create an engaged workforce and the types of benefits they offer employees. HR benefits leaders can’t simply roll out the standard solutions and expect them to cater to everyone’s needs or inspire their employees to use these benefits – and if they are not being used, who are they really benefiting?
The pandemic created a more distributed workforce and also presented opportunities to build connections between remote and in-office teams that had not existed before. For example, our virtual garden workshop programs are more popular today than they were in 2021 or 2022.
Gardenuity for Business is creating a new conversation surrounding why people should garden, as well as why plants and gardening need to be integrated into how we live and work.
How can gardening provide a service to the corporate community?
When you think about the typical benefits or wellness programs offered to employees, like gym memberships or meditation programs, you will find that these activities are ones that you tend to do by yourself. Gardening is a wellness benefit that can engage your employees together and help both their mental health and physical well-being.
When you nurture something, it, in turn, nurtures you back. And the Gardenuity approach helps everyone be a successful gardener.
Research has shown that digging in the dirt can help reduce stress and anxiety, and having plants around you can improve creativity and productivity. It also invites conversation and can be a great way to re-engage a workforce that (for one reason or another) is now disconnected from your business and its mission.
Time and again, we see that those who grow herbs and veggies make smarter food choices that can positively impact their physical health.
What are you most excited about for the new launch?
Providing a fresh commentary for organizations to discover Gardenuity and the impact our garden-inspired wellness programs can have on their organization.
