Voices: Leigh Howell
Meet Change Agent Leigh Howell, MS, Director of Administrative Services with IFAS Financial Service Center
Leigh is enthusiastic about her role with our Change Agent Network and how this cohort is connecting with stakeholders across UF for maximum community engagement.
Tell us about your role with IFAS.
The IFAS Financial Service Center supports financial transactions for 20 departments servicing over 2,000 faculty and staff. It is an honor to work with a great team that currently tackles over 58,000 transactions yearly. Our transactions include procurement, travel, P-cards, deposits and more. Like the departments we service from Ft. Lauderdale to Gainesville to the Panhandle, our team members also live in these areas. On the financial transaction team, we proudly have all levels of experience, from students to full-time employees with over 30 years of experience. Due to our strong reputation and customer service, we continue to expand operations to accommodate more departments.
In addition, to managing the Financial Service Center, I also oversee the IFAS Business Process team. We are a lean team that travels the state learning about department operations. We then work closely with the unit to develop and implement a plan to increase efficiencies, enhance customer services, and upskill faculty and staff. Our goal is to make financial processes easier for everyone.
How have you been involved with Empowering UF?
It is my privilege to be on the Change Agent Network team. We work with groups around the university to provide tools that encourage positive and productive communication about Empowering UF and Workday. It is wonderful being part of the communication stream sharing conceptual ideas and practicality implications for people at all levels within the university. Workday will touch all faculty and staff lives. I love seeing the community engagement. They are invested in making this process as smooth as possible. Along the way, we will encounter hiccups within implementation; yet, it is the community we are fortifying now that will help us navigate through the challenge and towards success.
What are you most looking forward to with Workday?
Through previous experiences, I know Workday’s leave requests and evaluation functions add ease of life for the end-user. It will be fantastic if within Workday the employee asks for leave and the supervisor approves. Even better, if our timesheet reflects this leave request.
For finances, I look forward to seeing the budgeting to non-grant projects and the ability for people to see their available balances within a dashboard. If this is able to be implemented, imagine how empowering it is for faculty and supervisors to easily know their balances.
What advice would you share with staff to help them adapt to the changes at UF?
Most people want to work with positive people when enduring change; therefore, the Financial Service Center motto is “Positive, Productive, &, when needed, Pivot.”
By its nature, change makes someone stretch beyond their comfort area. Most prefer to understand the productive value a change brings. Plus, they like someone who is gently uplifting to help them transform from the uncomfortable stage and into the confident future. My thoughts are by adding a bit of positive and productive to a change, it gives some comfort while they are growing.
Though we all want smooth transitions, often change comes with a few messy spots. This is where the “pivot” comes into the motto. Rely on your community to help get through the messy. Together you will work out solutions that will make the team successful.