The Steady Expansion of Social Networking at Work

Though personal relationships remain the top source for career networking, use of online professional networking sites is gaining popularity according to a new survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Nearly 20 percent of employees use online professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo, while 16 percent use online social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster according to the survey, “Networking Professionally: Employee Perspective.”

The top five sources for career networking include: friends and relatives (67 percent); colleagues (56 percent); conferences/trade shows/conventions (26 percent); supervisors/managers/higher level professionals in supervisory role (also 26 percent); and clients (25 percent).

Career networking via online professional networking sites ranked eighth while social networking sites ranked tenth. The poll includes 15 categories.

Additional survey highlights include:

Roughly 38 percent of respondents said they use online professional and social networking sites to learn about a particular company or someone who works at that company.

Nearly one in four (18 percent) respondents report using online professional and social networking sites as a job search method.

Another new SHRM poll reports that about 72 percent of employees in the U.S. say they work through lunch while 70 percent report working beyond scheduled time and on weekends. Could it be all that social networking that keeps them at their desks?