How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Many business and marketing experts have successfully demonstrated that people often tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know you and your business better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your site can help increase your credibility online and get interested prospects to contact you.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add an easy-to-manage staff directory to WordPress.

Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you build a simple staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your WordPress admin and in your admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu will display on the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

All of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can begin to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups panel …

(Groups settings)

Note: Configuring directory groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group category name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter your group description in this field
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new directory category …

(Groups settings)

If you run a medium to large organization, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, faculties, etc.

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

(Nested groups)

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

To change or reassign Groups for specific items, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected category will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To change your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …

Click Update Group to save your changes …

Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you have finished setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your employee’s name
• Slug: You can edit your employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your employee here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …

(Staff directory fields)

After you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group)

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

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

(New group added via Groups section)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing employee details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).

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After entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To update the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• The WordPress Dashboard Explained

Note: If you have set up groups and get an error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site permalinks …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks

Continue adding more details to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the staff profiles and details you have added with each entry …

(Staff Members details)

If you need to modify an individual’s entry, just hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit to edit the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from the employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Edit Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to find listing items if necessary …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings appear on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to the new position …

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

After adding your employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which your staff members display on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to its new location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin lets you customize the style and layout of your directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the style and layout of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Plugin Template)

The This code will display your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields show in the directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Your directory entries will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with code or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations you can use with the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales trainers”])

Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List support page and contact the plugin developer.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. For example, here are some other free plugins you can look at:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

The Modern Team Staff Directory plugin 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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

The plugin lets you insert custom fields …

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, plus as fields like title, email, phone, photo and bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to learn more about each employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

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 which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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

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

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

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

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple employee directory to your WordPress site, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

Images of models used to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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