In Hawai‘i, 57% of Employees Prefer Remote or Hybrid Work. Only 44% of Bosses Agree.

Twice a year, Hawaii Business Magazine asks Anthology Research to conduct two surveys of local residents: the BOSS Survey of 404 business owners and executives, and the 808 Poll of the general public. Part I of the latest results ran in the November issue; here are other interesting findings.

How Do You Feel About the University of Hawai’i?

People in both surveys were asked about their ties, if any, with UH.

In the survey of the general public:

• Among all college graduates, 47% have a degree from the UH system.
• Among those respondents born and raised in Hawai‘i, 41% are graduates of the UH system; 11% of transplants to the state have a UH degree.
• Among the major ethnic groups in the state, 55% of Japanese respondents have a UH degree. The ethnic group with the lowest percentage is Caucasians, at 11%

Next, those respondents who attended UH were asked to rate their overall experience using this scale

All the respondents in both surveys were asked to rate their general feelings about UH.

Remote Work vs. In-Person Work

Participants in both surveys were asked about the policy governing in-person attendance at the places where they work. In the poll of the general public, 292 people said they are working; their answers are reflected below.

• On the Neighbor Islands, 74% of business respondents said their companies’ employees work in-person all or almost all the time, compared with 61% on O‘ahu.
• Among the general public, 78% of all workers with annual household incomes below $50,000 work for businesses that require employees to be in-person at their job sites all or almost all of the time. Among workers with annual household incomes above $100,000, only 49% work for such businesses.

Each respondent was asked what they prefer regarding remote work.

Among the general public, preference for in-person work is higher among less educated and less affluent segments. For example, 54% of those without a college degree prefer to work in-person all or almost all of the time; this preference falls to 31% among those with a college degree.

BOSS Survey Goes Inside the Tourism Industry

As part of the overall BOSS Survey, we conducted a survey-within-the-survey: a poll of 111 business owners and executives who said most of their companies’ revenue comes from visitors. Here’s what they told us.

The overall results are compiled into a single index, the BOSS Performance Index. The higher the number in the index, the better the overall results. Here is how tourism companies overall compared with all other companies in the BOSS Survey.

Another key question asked of all BOSS respondents: Do you think the overall local economy will improve, remain the same or get worse over the coming year? Interestingly, the respondents in the tourism industry were more optimistic overall than those at other local companies. For example, 48% of those in the tourism industry thought the overall economy would improve; only 34% of those representing non-tourism companies shared that sentiment.

The responses to that question are aggregated into the Optimism Index. The higher number indicates more optimism.

The BOSS Survey was conducted Aug. 15 to Sept. 13, 2023 – starting a week after the tragic devastation in Lahaina. The survey began with a series of questions about each company’s key financial metrics over the past year: Did your revenue, staffing and profit go up in the past year, hold steady or go down? Here is what they said:

The visitor industry owners and executives were asked to predict overall visitor spending at their businesses in the next year or two.

Last year, when we asked the same question, 62% of respondents predicted an increase in visitor spending.

Visitors From Japan and the Rest of Asia

The tourism industry companies were asked about the impact on their bottom line of the relative absence of tourists from Japan and other Asian countries. They were asked which of the following three options best describes the effect on their businesses.