While we are in the midst of things, we don't always appreciate how they will benefit us long term. I have been thinking quite a bit recently about two scenarios like that in my life.
At my first job in HR I worked for a company that was ISO certified. One of the things that meant is we had a robust document management process. There was a database where all company documents were logged, you had to track every place where a document was distributed so that you could update it when revisions were made, and our document management process was subject to audit by our certifying body. I remember thinking what a pain this all was. However, many years later, I understand its value.
At my company we have no centralized records database that I know of or any training on document control. And it shows. I have looked at our company's intranet and found multiple versions of a form. In HR, we receive and accept outdated versions of certain forms. In my ISO life, it was drilled in our heads to never save a local copy of a file for future use. If you turned in an obsolete version of the form, it was promptly rejected, and you were instructed to submit the current version. I also see this in my department's ongoing efforts to write SOPs. There is just a lack of knowledge about how to track revisions to documents. People don't know what they aren't taught.
The second example is my company's applicant tracking system (ATS). When I started, our entire recruiting process was tracked manually. Yes, it was a nightmare. I was one of the people who helped implement the ATS 7 years ago. I immediately saw the benefit as we were able to automate so much of our previously manual work. However, something I didn't understand at the time is how much the experience would help me with understanding how the system works, and consequently, being able to troubleshoot glitches. Just today, one of my newer coworkers said "Task A won't work right. Can you look at it?". Since I know how the parts of the system work together, I was quickly able to locate the issue (that was caused by someone outside of our team) and tell her how to work around it. Once she did that, she then said "I can't figure out how to do Task B" that was part of the workaround. I was able to email her instructions on how to do that. Was implementing the ATS tedious and time consuming? Definitely. Has it benefitted me in ways other than recruitment automation? Also a yes.
We never know where life will take us in the future. Who knows what task that we find annoying today may greatly benefit us tomorrow?
