Category: WordPress Customization

Something often said in marketing, is that people tend to buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Adding a staff directory to your website is a great way to humanize your organization.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory to your website without coding skills.

Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add An Employee 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 – WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a free plugin that lets you easily display basic information to visitors about your staff on your website.

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into the WordPress administration and in your admin menu, click on 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 search results area.

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu will display on the main WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can begin adding new staff members after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your directory categories. In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups panel in your browser …

(Groups screen)

Note: Adding directory groups is similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your group category 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 – Enter a category description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up a new directory category …

(Groups section)

If you run a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

To edit or reassign Groups for a particular entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected group will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group when done to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

Once you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to begin to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member settings in your browser …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Modify your staff members’ slug (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: Type in the person’s role here
• Email: Type the staff member’s email address here
• Phone Number: Type your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type your company’s Facebook URL here (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: Add a profile description for your staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign the person to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

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

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(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 your staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you did not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field for creating your group name will appear, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(Groups box)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).

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After filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Your WP Admin Screen – A Tutorial

Note: If you have set up groups and get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding more details to your employee directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the staff profiles and their details …

(Staff Members details)

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

Click on Edit if you want to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile)

If you have many names to add, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate listing items if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order that entries appear on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on the main menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to a desired position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you edit the layout and style of your employee directory listings 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 opens the Templates page …

(Templates page)

To customize your directory, reorganize 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 directory listings …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

The The code shown above displays your 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, as shown in the example below …

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

Your staff listings will now appear with Facebook and Twitter links as as the screenshot below shows …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode section)

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

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

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

Options Menu

In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

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

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List support page and request help from the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can use to create a staff directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory 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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

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

Go here to learn more:

• Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin 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 profiles in a widget area.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, image and staff bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 sourced from plugin website)

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team 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 upon plugin activation.

With Employee Spotlight, you also get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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

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

More info:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

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 a staff directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple staff directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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