Adam Moreland
“We do like to run pretty fast here at Nutanix.”
Adam Moreland always knew he wanted to be a part of a startup, so he joined the Nutanix team over seven years ago when there were only 80 employees. As he has grown with the company, he has served in many positions since starting his journey with us.
These days, Adam is the face of New Hire Sales Training for the entire company and leads a team of five that offers onboarding solutions to help keep up with our rapid growth. “We’re trying to break all the rules as far as how fast we can grow and how quickly we can enter new markets and deliver new products. What we focus on from an enablement perspective in onboarding is scale.”
Setting the tone for new team members
As a partner in the onboarding and training process, Adam’s positive attitude helps set the tone on culture for new Nutants. When he speaks to newly hired team members each week, he tells them the story of our technology. “It helps them have empathy for our customers and it makes new hires very proud of not only where they’ve decided to work, but understanding as a company what we’re providing. And that can create a common bond.”
Adam brings an emphasis on work-life balance to the culture at Nutanix. “If we’re going to spend as many hours as we do in the office away from our friends and our family, we have to enjoy the people that we work with. At the end of the day, we don’t get lost in what we think we need to do for the company.” Instead, Adam helps others work on becoming the best version of themselves and making sure to “enjoy the company that we have.”
Focus on being our best selves
We all have to step up to become the best version of ourselves, and Adam creates an environment to encourage that with the support from his Nutanix team. Adam hosts a “Daily Challenge” exercise class for his coworkers to get a chance to get up and get moving for 10-15 minutes during the workday. “It gets you to breathe and get away from the computer. We try not to break a sweat, but sometimes that happens as well.” The “Daily Challenge” tradition now runs four years strong, and that dedicated time blocked off on his calendar each day is respected by the team members.
Adam also helped create “Enduroclub”, a running club for Nutants, that has a dedicated Slack channel. Colleagues meet up to run together twice a week or sign up to run a race together. This group has since taken on a life of its own now with over 120 members. Some Enduroclub members recently completed a Half Iron Man, and 60 Nutants will be completing the Wharf to Wharf Race this year. Nutanix is proud to have sponsored participation in these events by covering the registration fees. “Being able to exercise and break away from the typical grind, and being supported financially is pretty incredible. That is something that is never taken for granted working at Nutanix.”
This outlet has given team members the chance to learn something new, push themselves, and get out of their comfort zone. “It brings out that personal element. You find a different way to relate to somebody.”
The benefits of diversity
While the tech industry often despairs of a lack of diversity in their hiring pool, we continue to hire diversely at Nutanix and promote an environment where more diverse candidates will see opportunity and continue to apply. We foster a welcoming environment through programs such as Webscale Women, a community for women in technology. .Heart, our outreach program, enables people to take time off in order to donate those hours working towards the greater good. Adam is very proud of these programs and said, “Webscale Women and .Heart create environments where people can thrive, find support, and experience new cultures and life perspectives.”
Adam sees Nutanix’s take on diversity and inclusion as a “compound positive.” “We hire diversely, which creates an environment where all different types of people feel comfortable and see a path for themselves here. Thus, they continue to put their resume out there, creating a great pool of candidates to choose from as we continue to hire diversely in the future.”
Adam is proud of his diverse team and values the variety of perspectives the members bring to the table. “We have a ton of diversity, and it’s really great to see how each individual on the team brings out a different skillset and perspective. That’s not necessarily related to the diversity, but you can’t help but see how that can play a positive role in giving a well-balanced view of all of the things we’re trying to tackle.”
To bring radical improvement of diversity and inclusion to the tech industry as a whole, Adam offers two solutions: fixing unconscious bias and spotlighting diverse leaders. “Where we end up in our career is often times formed when we are younger and we’re looking at people we look up to. I decided to become an engineer, and I remember the day that I decided that’s what I wanted to do, and I was probably 10 years old.” Adam encourages the tech industry to shine a light on diverse players currently in the industry so the younger generation sees themselves represented in the industry and sees someone they can look up to and want to be like one day.
One roadblock to diversity and inclusion is unconscious bias, those biases that we don’t mean to have, but still exist. “There is no better way to fix unconscious bias than to immerse yourself in different cultures with an open mind to see life from a different perspective. If you can compliment that mindset with a lesser emphasis on pride and profoundly more empathy, then I think we can all become better versions of ourselves.”