Life at Wilson | Ben's career journey

My name is Ben Langner. I'm the vice president of human resources at Wilson. I am based in the United States and I lead our global HR function. So that spans everything from total rewards, TA, people systems, talent development, HR operations. And my real focus at Wilson is scaling our people infrastructure to drive performance across the business.

Yes, I do remember my first role starting at Wilson. I was brought in as an individual contributor as an HR business partner in a massive growth phase at Wilson about four years ago. I was responsible for our people operations NAMM team. that quickly evolved into supporting our global function. So early on, it was fast, sometimes messy, but deeply rewarding. I learned at Wilson, was very much a place you could build, you could fail forward, and you could scale in real time. And I really appreciated that really early on in my career at Wilson.

Well, I think it's evolved massively from when I first So what originally started as kind of regional oversight turned into global scale. And I now lead cross-functional HR organization, all facets of HR, doing many different things, whether it be building frameworks, job architecture, compensation strategies, leading business partners, and help developing talent development. So my work has gone on from strictly hands-on operational to system level strategy.

I kind of stumbled into HR, honestly. I, many years ago, had an opportunity to work with a woman named Cathy, who showed me what it meant to truly care for people in a professional setting. But at that time, I wasn't in HR. wasn't even thinking about HR. was just a really unique time in my professional career.

I've always been super passionate about people and operationally kind of focused as a professional. I figured out and understood that HR done right with people in operations could really be a business growth machine in any organization. So being able to tie through operations, humanity, people, and making all of those things work together has been extremely rewarding for me over the last several years. And I think if HR professionals can make those three things work, you're going to do great in HR.

Skills and experiences that have helped me the most in my career are going to be operational discipline and emotional intelligence. Those two skills have propelled me in many ways in the HR space. I think my ability to understand operational complexity while still leading with empathy has put me in positions to kind of shine in the HR space. An ability and willingness to roll my sleeves up, work with my team.

Credibility in the HR space comes from understanding both people and process. So having the operational discipline and the emotional intelligence to drive a business forward is what's going to help any HR professional excel in the function.

One of the most valuable lessons for me that I've learned throughout my career is that leadership is not about control, it is about clarity. The more transparent and predictable you are as a leader, the more trust and performance you create around you with your team and around your team.

For me to stay motivated and inspired at work, it's about seeing impact around me. I think that's a lot of different things in the HR space. And a lot of times it's kind of behind the scenes. Not a lot of people get to see impact from an HR professional. There are some things that are seen, but most of what an HR professional does is gonna be behind the scenes. And that's what keeps me motivated, inspired to work. If you're in the HR space, looking for constant praise, looking for constant recognition, you're probably not in the right field. But for me, it's about seeing the impact around me, whether that be through my team or the employees that I serve at the organization that I work for.

One piece of advice that I'd give to somebody just starting their HR career is simply be dependable. You can gain skills, you can grow skills, you can be put in different situations, but if you are not dependable, you are not going to create trust and opportunity in the HR space. Show up, follow through, do what you say you're gonna do, and that alone will set you apart from most people.

The way I describe the culture at Wilson and the impact that it's having on my career is the two things that come to my mind are grit and ownership. And that kind of an environment isn't for everybody. It can be demanding. But I also think it accelerates growth in a lot of ways internally as an HR team, but also just as a business. That grit and ownership mentality and culture has really propelled our organization in many different ways and me and my team as well. I think it pushes us to evolve faster as an organization and think bigger, really maybe even differently than I kind of anticipated coming into the organization.

The accomplishment that I'm most proud of looking back at my career is being able to build other HR leaders around me. Being able to see somebody gain confidence, gain impact with executives, being able to coach others, I think that's the real win when I look back at my accomplishments over the years. I believe that my leadership is measured by how many other leaders I build, not what I personally deliver. And for me, that's the legacy work of HR. How many leaders can I build around me?

I see my career continuing to grow at Wilson through continued influence, scaling how HR shows up to the table and strategy, not being just a service desk, but really a strategy engine for Wilson. So next phase for me at Wilson is about embedding our people strategy into every business decision globally.

If you're interested in learning more about Wilson's culture, check out our career page.