It’s often said in business and marketing circles that people will buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.
If you run a WordPress site, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that lets you display information about your partners, your team, or your employees.
This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to create a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff in your web site.
Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site
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 – WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you build a basic staff directory list for.
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your admin and from the admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new entry will have been added to your WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin adding new staff entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s configure your directory categories. From your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This takes you to the Groups settings …
(Groups area)
Note: Adding groups is just like setting up categories in WordPress …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group name
- 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.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in your group description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new group name …
(Groups settings)
If you are a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, project teams, 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 assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To change Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The item will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member area …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This page 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: Your staff member’s name
- Permalink: You can change each employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type your staff member’s role
- Email: The employee’s email
- Phone Number: Enter your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter your employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your company’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. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign your staff member to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
You can 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 settings)
Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups section located in the sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field for entering a new group name will display, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on Add New Group …
Your new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign the list item to the group …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to a staff or faculty member’s details. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).
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After typing in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
If you need help using the admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If a page error shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …
(Not found error? Check your permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial on setting up WP permalinks, go here:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you have finished adding employees to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all your employees and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to edit individual details, simply hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members profile)
If you have many entries, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search field)
You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To hide 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 shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that entries show on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added all of your employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings appear on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the main admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding all of your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin lets you customize the layout and style of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Simple Staff List Templates page)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The This code displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To display these fields, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)
Your directory details will now appear with Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …
(Staff profiles with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen displays all the shortcode variations you can use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to your page 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”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
Here you can change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export menu …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need plugin support, go to the plugin site and request help from the plugin author.
Other Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your faculty in WordPress. Here are a few other free plugins you can look at for adding an employee directory on your site:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide 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:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone, pic and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors can 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 sourced from plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one individual person 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 device screen size.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory 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 an employee directory on your website …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
If the above plugins aren’t what you’re looking for, search the WordPress plugin directory or go online and search for:
- Add Staff Directory To WordPress
- WordPress Staff Directory Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-update directory of staff or faculty members to your website using free WP plugins.
Images of persons used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)