No doubt you already know that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know you and your business better.
Adding a faculty member directory to your site can help to generate greater trust, boost your credibility online and get interested prospects considering using your services.
This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-update directory of staff members to your WordPress site.
Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To WordPress
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you easily staff members (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate this plugin.
Log into your admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings 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 the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will have been added to your main WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin to add new employee entries at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your directory groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups settings …
(Groups screen)
Note: Adding groups is similar to working with WordPress categories …
(Groups are like WordPress categories)
Create a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested groups
- Description – Enter the category description here (optional)
- Click Add New Group when done to create a new group …
(Groups settings screen)
If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested groups 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 each item …
To change Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The selected category details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group to save your changes …
Continue adding group names in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start adding names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member area)
This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Add the employee’s name
- Slug: Edit the permalink URL for each employee if you want (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your employee’s position
- Email: Type in the person’s email
- Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the employee’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 employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign your staff member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options tab)
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 …
(Add Staff Member settings)
After 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 did not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on Add New Group …
Your new category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group added in Groups box)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff 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 filling in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can make changes to your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
For a detailed tutorial on using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If ’page not found’ errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have correctly set up your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get a ‘page not found’ error)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Keep adding more entries to your directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done adding employee details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table of all the directory items and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to make changes to individual entries, hover your mouse over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to make changes to the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members profile)
If you have many entries, your table can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find a member …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown 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 arrange the order that your staff entries display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding all of your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
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.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to the desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list)
After adding your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you customize the layout and style of your employee directory entries 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 your menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Plugin 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 example. To make these fields show up in the directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Here is what your staff list should now look like …
(Employee profiles with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with template tags or are unsure of what to do, 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 menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage Shortcode screen)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”partners”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
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 page …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need plugin support, go to the plugin plugin website and contact the plugin developer.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your staff. Here are some other free plugins you can look at:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP 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)
More info:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
The plugin lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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.
Learn more here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, image and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors can 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 website)
This plugin uses simple shortcodes.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one individual person in a 4-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 that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
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 Employee Spotlight plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin 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 a staff directory on your website …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
If the directory plugins listed above 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
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Images used to display 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