Author: WP Compendium

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

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your organization better.

Adding a directory of employees or team members to your site can help boost your online credibility and get interested prospects to send you enquiries for quotes or more information.

This tutorial will show you how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your website.

Adding An Employee List Directory: Tutorial

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 to visitors about your employee on your site.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

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

(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 the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu will display on your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just start to add new staff entries at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place yourgroup members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your categories. From your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups panel …

(Groups area)

Note: Configuring groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category. 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 groups
4. Description – Type in the category description here
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up the new group name …

(Groups settings)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for founders, developers, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

To change Groups for a particular item, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected item’s details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your employee’s name
• Slug: Edit your staff members’ slug (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: Add your staff member’s position
• Email: Your employee’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add the person’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your staff or faculty member here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory settings)

After you have finished inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add new staff members, 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 to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on Add New Group …

Your new category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to an employee or faculty member’s details. To edit a group item, 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 to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:

• Understanding The WordPress Control Page

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

(Not found error? Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new details to your staff directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have entered all staff members into 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 list of all your directory entries and their details …

(Staff Members details list)

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

Click on Edit if you want to modify the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from your directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile info)

If you have many names to add, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate entries if required …

(Search Staff Members search box)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your staff details display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your staff members display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you edit the style and layout of your directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Your employee details will now display as shown in the screenshot below …

(Directory listings with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that you can use with this plugin.

A useful shortcode variation you can decide to use, for example, to display a list of staff or team members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

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

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

This section lets you 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 plugin info)

If you need additional information about the plugin, go to the plugin faq page.

Other Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to display a directory of your faculty members in WordPress. For example, here are some other free plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also use custom fields …

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide 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.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, photo and bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP 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 online employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staffer

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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to in WordPress using a free plugin.

Models used to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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