No doubt you already know that people tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to engage more on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your business better.
If you run a WordPress-driven website, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your team, or your staff members using a WordPress staff list plugin.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to create and add a simple employee directory in your site using free plugins.
How To Add An Employee List Directory To Your Site: WordPress Plugin Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the admin and go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new entry will be added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
Here is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can start to add new staff members after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups screen …
(Groups settings screen)
Note: Configuring groups works just like WordPress categories …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Add new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
- Description – Enter your group description here
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new category …
(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 categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To change Groups for a specific entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The selected group details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group to save your changes …
Add as many group names as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
Once you are done setting up your directory structure, you can start to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member area opens on your web browser …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your staff member’s name
- Slug: Edit the permalink URL for your staff member if required (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the person’s role
- Email: The staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: Add your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type your employee’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the person’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen options)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
Once you have entered details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group feature)
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 the Add New Group button …
A new category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign an individual to the group …
(Groups section)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If you get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Continue adding new details to your staff directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done entering employee or faculty members into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all your staff members and any details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to make changes to individual details, just hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members info)
If you have many entries, your table can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find entries if necessary …
(Search members)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which listings appear on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on your main admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the new location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list items)
After adding all member details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which listings display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you edit the style and layout of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Templates page)
To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Template)
The The code shown above will display your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To make these fields appear in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as the example below shows …
(Directory with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage Shortcode section)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations you can use.
A useful variation you can decide to use, for example, to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”technical engineers”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Choose Staff Members >Options in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin website and contact the plugin author.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your staff in WordPress. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can use:
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 this plugin:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you easily create a directory of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
This plugin lets you set up custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
Learn more here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin 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:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, pic 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 in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.
Detailed information about each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin uses custom post types for staff 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 plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Learn more here:
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 Directory Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple staff directory to your WordPress site without messing around with code, so your web visitors can get to know your team better.
Images of models used to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group