Meet Luke Flory, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Invasion Science Institute, UF/IFAS
Dr. Flory’s research focuses on the mechanisms and impact of non-native plant invasions. He and his team’s goal is to understand the long-term consequences of interactions between invasive species and other potential global change drivers such as climate change, fire and emerging pathogens. The Flory Lab focuses on community, ecosystem and global change ecology at UF. He and his team have worked globally to identify ecological threats and design solutions, and they are dedicated to teaching — which means they welcome new ways of thinking and working.
How have you been involved in Empowering UF preparations for Workday?
I have participated in a Faculty Focus Group and have explored the website.
In what ways will Workday positively support you and your colleagues?
I’m looking forward to a unified and streamlined platform for managing finances and human resources. Moving to a modernized single sign-on system that integrates across different accounts and can provide data and reports to better understand our resources will be incredibly helpful.
What is your personal approach to embracing change and leading your teams to welcome new resources?
When systems that have been in place for a long time are updated or entirely replaced, I encourage team members to be open-minded about what might be improved under the new change. It can be difficult to learn new systems at first, but I’m confident that the years-long effort to integrate processes and data into Workday will improve day-to-day operational efficiency.
What advice can you offer fellow faculty and staff as they adapt to new technology and different ways of getting work done?
New systems and applications can certainly be frustrating at first, but the Empowering UF team behind Workday implementation has been working hard to make the system as efficient and useful as process. There will almost certainly be frustrations as we move to the new system, but the changes will ultimately improve effectiveness and efficiency of research, teaching and UF/IFAS Extension activities.