Increasing IT skills of HR professionals and general office workers is creating new and worrying ‘micro-silos’ of data among UK SME business, putting productivity, compliance and the bottom line at risk, according to research from database experts FileMaker.

It found that 31% of HR professionals were seen as the worst offenders of customising critical databases that lead to serious workflow/compliance issues.

The research found that 64% of respondents believe their business suffers from a micro-silo mentality when it comes to company information, with 45% believing this is a result of poor IT management.

It revealed that the most junior and most senior employees have the lowest IT skills, with this situation increasing as the business size grows. A third of IT managers have no formal IT qualifications, and are either self-taught or trained on the job, with 40% also coping with a dual role of director (41%) or operations manager (36%).

Tony Speakman, regional manager Northern Europe, FileMaker, says: “This research highlights that critical information management is being seriously harmed. Not just by simple bad habits but also by users actively creating, and in some cases unintentionally distorting, information to suit their own needs. These findings should provide a real wake up call.  Whilst increased autonomy and a greater spread of IT skills can lead to a more fluid use of business information, SMEs must quickly rethink their information needs and processes.”

The research found that sales teams are the biggest culprits of rogue data management at 61%, closely followed by finance (51%), marketing (42%) and operations at 33%. IT, who is often charged with keeping on top of all this information chaos, are the least likely to form micro-silos with only 25%.