More than two out of five business decision-makers (41%) do not understand the value of social networking although 43% of HR professionals use sites such as LinkedIn to gather knowledge.

According to e-learning company Brightwave, 63% of business decision-makers have no plans to facilitate social networking for learning purposes within the next 18 months and 70% of staff currently do not have any work time access to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.

But almost 73% of organisations polled encourage staff to use secure company intranet systems for informal learning.

Lars Hyland, director of learning services at Brightwave said: "UK businesses are missing out on a huge opportunity to cost-effectively build knowledge and understanding, as well as engagement, across large volumes of employees in different locations. Business leaders must be informed about the real opportunities in applying social networks to business, otherwise they risk alienating their highly networked current and future talent in today's global workforce."

Follow HR magazine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hrmagazine