Almost 20 per cent employees admitted they would reject a job offer if they did not have reasonable access to social media sites such as Facebook.
A survey of 870 employers and employees from recruitment company Hays found that 19.7 per cent workers would not take up a job offer where access to social media was limited.
About half of those surveyed already accessed social media at work, with 13.3 per cent accessing it daily and 36.4 per cent checking occasionally, the AAP news agency reported.
Employers’ expectations over social media access also seemed in line with their staff.
Almost half (44.3 per cent) believed that allowing employees access to social media at work will improve retention levels, and a third already gave their staff access to it.
Only 23.7 per cent of employers allowed no access to social media sites and 43.2 per cent only allowed limited access to social media sites at work.
“The survey suggested that many employees, particularly Generation Y, expected access to social media at work for personal use,” Hays NSW regional manager Shane Little, said.
“What we are seeing (is) this more projected feeling among employers and the younger workforce that it is going to become a bigger matter as time progresses, as far as attraction of staff and also the retention of staff,” he said.
Little said this could mean implementing social media policies about when access was allowed, such as before work or during lunch breaks, or using technology to block access at certain times.
He said that many employers that allowed unlimited access to social media sites often had large IT systems that could monitor employees’ usage in case it hindered productivity.