No doubt you already know that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for ways to sell more products or services online, then help visitors get to know you and your business better.
If you use WordPress, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that will let you add a directory listing with information about your partners, your business team, or your staff members.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple faculty directory to your site using free plugins.
WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you employee.
First, let’s install and activate the plugin.
Log into your administration and from the admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu will have been added to the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could start to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your categories go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This opens up the Groups settings …
(Groups settings)
Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work just like categories)
Add new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up nested groups
- Description – Enter a category description in this field (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to create the new group …
(Groups section)
If you manage a business that employs many people, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To edit or reassign Groups for an entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The category will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update to save your changes …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This page provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter your employee’s name
- Permalink: Modify each staff members’ slug (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s role
- Email: Type your staff member’s email
- Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your staff member’s Twitter username (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 staff or team member here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options)
You can enable additional page settings …
(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 are done entering details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field for creating a new group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a person’s details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After typing in your employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
If you need help using the admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:
Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …
(Not found error – Check your permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your staff directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have entered all employee details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all your listing entries and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to modify an individual’s entry, hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members profile)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you 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 …
(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 finished to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your employees appear on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the new position …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added members’ details to the 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 lets you arrange the order that listings appear on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in the main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to its desired position …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding member details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you edit the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates screen …
(Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The This code will display your listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in your directory, we 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 employee profiles will now display as as shown below …
(Directory listings with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with code or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your dashboard menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that you can use with the plugin.
A useful variation you can add to your page, 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 using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options screen)
This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export section …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the Simple Staff List plugin site and request help from the plugin author.
Other Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for displaying a directory of your staff in WordPress. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can use to create a staff directory on your site:
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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you set up custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Learn more about the plugin here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With Company Directory, you can easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone number, photo 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 members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
This plugin uses shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just a single 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 this plugin, you also get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.
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 website)
For more details go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
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 an employee directory on your site …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details go here:
If the directory plugins listed above 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 Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your WordPress site.
Models used to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum