Author: WP Compendium

No doubt you already know that people generally buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Adding a staff directory to your site can help increase your credibility online and get interested prospects considering using your services.

This tutorial shows you how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff to your web site.

Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily display basic information about your staff members on your website.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WP admin and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new entry will have been added to your main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could start to add new employee details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualmembers into.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Configuring groups is just like adding categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter a group description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when done to create the new category …

(Groups settings)

If you manage a larger organization, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories 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 the Add New Group button after entering each item …

To edit Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button after making changes …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Slug: Edit each employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s role
• Email: Enter the employee’s email here
• Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add your company’s Twitter username (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. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or team member to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, 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 …

The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff 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).

***

After entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

To make changes to the staff member’s 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 , go here:

• The WP Dashboard – An Overview

Note: If an error shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have correctly configured your permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more members to your staff or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have entered all staff members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory items and their details …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s entry, just hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members details)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search field to locate items …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that listings appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list items)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the new location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added all of your member listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to edit the style and layout of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the layout and style of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up 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 template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Your employee listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the screenshot below …

(Employee profiles with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with CSS code and template tags or are not sure 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 lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

A useful shortcode variation you can choose, for example, 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=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to the main menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

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

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your team members in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily display a list of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.

You can also insert custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, image and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors will be able to 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

With this plugin, you also get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin uses custom post types for employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your website …

(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.

More info:

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

Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory to your WordPress site.

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

***