How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Business experts often raise the point that people generally buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a faculty directory to your website will help humanize your organization.

In this tutorial, we show you how to add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory to your web site.

Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily display basic information to visitors about your staff on your site.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into your dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new entry will have been added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could just start adding new entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual group members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your directory groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups panel opens on your browser …

(Groups screen)

Note: Configuring directory groups works just like categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in your category description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create a new group …

(Groups area)

If you run a business that employs many people, the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after entering new items …

To change Groups for a specific entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The category will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …

Click on Update Group  when done …

Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member section)

This page provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Slug: Modify the slug for each employee if you want (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Add the employee’s role
• Email: The staff member’s email
• Phone Number: Type in the person’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add your staff member’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign your staff member to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups section located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for entering a new group name will display, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on Add New Group …

The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added in Groups box)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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After typing in the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …

Click View Post …

You can update the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial about using the WordPress admin toolbar here:

• An Overview Of The WP Dashboard

Note: If you see a page error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding new members to your directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff or faculty members to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory entries and their details …

(Staff Members list)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s details, hover your mouse over their list name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to edit the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from your employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Editing Staff Members profile information)

If you have many entries, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate a member if necessary …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that your employee listings show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to its desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which your employees show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to the desired location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added member details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you create the style and layout of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the style and layout of your employee directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory, reorganize any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The The code shown above displays your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above example. To display these fields, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Your directory listings will now display as as shown below …

(Directory with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can decide to use to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])

You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on the main menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Options screen)

This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin

You can also export your staff members info by going to the WordPress admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List support page.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your team members in WordPress. For example, here are other free plugins you can check out to add an employee directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Modern Team Staff Directory helps you collect your team information and showcase it anywhere on your site in beautiful grids, columns and tables. This premium plugin features over a dozen presets and provides editors that make it easy to edit and update your directory.

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Responsive Templates)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

Staff Directory lets you easily create a directory of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.

This plugin lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, as well as fields like title, email, phone, image and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just an individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

Detailed information about  each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

This plugin uses custom post types for staff/employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

If the above plugins aren’t what you’re looking for, just go online or visit the WordPress plugin directory and search for:

• Add Staff Directory To WordPress
• WordPress Staff Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update simple employee directory to your web site using free WordPress plugins.

Images used to display sample staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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