Author: WP Compendium

It’s often said in business and marketing circles that people will buy from people they already know, like and trust.

Are you searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If your site is built with the WordPress CMS, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your team, or your staff members using a WordPress directory plugin.

In this tutorial, we explain how to easily add a simple employee directory in WordPress using a free plugin.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily staff (you could also use it to display board of directors, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into the dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will display on the main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just begin adding new staff members at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your groups go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This opens up the Groups screen in your web browser …

(Groups area)

Note: Adding directory groups is just like adding WordPress categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in the category description in this field
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up the new directory category …

(Groups screen)

If you work with a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

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

(Nested groups)

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

To change Groups for individual entries, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected item’s details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group when done 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 groups as you like …

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

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

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Permalink: You can modify the slug associated with each employee if you want (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your staff member’s role
• Email: Type the person’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’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: Enter the person’s Twitter username into this field (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or faculty member to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory settings)

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

(Groups section)

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

(Groups > + Add New Group)

A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on Add New Group …

Your new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign the employee’s details to the group …

(Groups box)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee 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 entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can update your employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:

• Your WordPress Control Area Explained

Note: If ’page not found’ errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

If you need help setting up WP permalinks, go here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to continue adding more details to your directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have added staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and their details …

(Staff Members details)

If you need to edit an individual’s details, just hover over their name, and a submenu 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 remove someone from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile information)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

After adding your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that your staff members show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its desired position …

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to customize the style and layout of your employee directory listings 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 Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list will now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

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

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

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options in the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Options screen)

This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List faq page.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your team members. For example, here are a few other free plugins you can check out to add an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

This 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 – WP 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 churches, schools, etc.

The plugin also lets you set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

Faculty And Staff Directory provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.

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

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, plus as fields like position title, email, 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 employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

Go here to learn more:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just an individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

More info:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

Staffer 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 onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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

Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory to your web site.

Models used in this tutorial to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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