How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Many business experts have successfully demonstrated over the years that people tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online or get people to interact more with your site, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.

If you use WordPress, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your team, or your employees using a directory plugin.

This tutorial explains how to create an easy-to-manage staff directory in WordPress.

Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

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 lets you easily build a basic staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into the dashboard and navigate 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 Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will display on the main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring Simple Staff List

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just start adding new entries after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your groups. From your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups screen …

(Groups section)

Note: Adding groups works in the same way as adding categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Enter the slug 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 groups
4. Description – Enter your category description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new group name …

(Groups settings screen)

If you run a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups 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 groups)

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

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

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your staff member’s name
• Permalink: Edit the slug for each employee if you want (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your staff member here. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign your employee to a specific group (see above 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 features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory fields)

After you have entered details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups section located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group)

A field for entering your new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on Add New Group …

Your new group will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …

(New group added in Groups feature)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing an employee’s details. 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 typing in the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

To update your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar here:

• The WP Dashboard – An Overview

Note: If you get a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have set up your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Not found error? Check your permalinks)

To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding more details to your employee directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have entered all employees to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your staff profiles and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit an individual’s details, simply hover your mouse over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members details)

If you have many employees added to this section, your table can get quite long.

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

(Search Staff Members search box)

You can specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to the new location …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding member details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the desired position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added staff details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Templates screen)

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

For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Employee profiles 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 how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

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

In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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

For example, a useful variation you can select to display a list of employees belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”property managers”])

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

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Options settings screen)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin plugin site and request help from the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

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

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin provides 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.

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

Company Directory lets you easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, pic and bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

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

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

For more details go here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

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

Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

The Staffer 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 online employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer

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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff members to a WordPress site using free plugins.

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

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