IT contractors should be encouraging firms to incorporate social networking media into their jobs, it has been claimed.

A new report from Clearswift finds that 57 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds enagaged in personal tasks, such as using social networking, while on the job.

The Social Media Portal believes it is time that companies accepted this and worked with rather against it.

Doing so not only improves employee confidence and wellbeing, it is also allows firms to start working it into their branding and marketing programmes, claims Tim Gibbon, co-founder and editor of the Social Media Portal.

"The cultural shift is already upon us, it's here to stay, and so now it needs to be managed to maximise its potential, whether it is on a social or business level," he added.

Clearswift's survey also found that despite the economic climate, one-fifth of UK workers would turn down a job that did not allow them to use social networking sites.