Many business experts often raise the point that people will buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ideas 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 visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.
If your web presence is driven by the WordPress Content Management System, one way to easily 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 are going to show you how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to your website using free plugins.
How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site: Plugin Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily display information about your staff on your website.
First, let’s install and activate the plugin.
Log into the admin and from the admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …
(WP 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 …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new entry will have been added to the WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin to add new employee details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by configuring your directory groups. In your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This takes you to the Groups screen …
(Groups section)
Note: Configuring groups is just like adding categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Create a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- 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.
- Parent – Use this section to set up nested categories
- Description – Enter the category description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to create a new directory group …
(Groups settings area)
If you are a business that employs many people, the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups 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 on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To edit Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
Your selected group open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update to save your changes …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button 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 groups to your directory)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WordPress admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member area …
(Add New Staff Member screen)
This area provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter the staff member’s name
- Permalink: Change each employees’ slug (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: The employee’s role
- Email: Type your staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number into this field
- Facebook URL: Type your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username into this field (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign a staff or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(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 your staff member’s details …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you have not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on Add New Group …
A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing an employee’s details. To edit a group 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 entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …
Click View Post …
You can edit your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the WordPress admin toolbar here:
Note: If you get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Page error – Check your permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here:
Continue adding more entries to your staff directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table of all your staff profiles and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to make changes to individual entries, simply hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile details)
If you have many entries added to this section, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find entries …
(Search members)
The plugin also allows you to 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 …
(Screen Options tab)
Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that your staff entries show on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to the new position …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added all of your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which entries display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to a desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding all staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List lets you customize the style and layout of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Templates screen)
To customize your directory, reorganize any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Simple Staff List Template)
The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To display these fields, you 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 Staff Loop Template)
Your staff entries will now display as as shown below …
(Directory with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations you can use.
A useful shortcode variation you can add, for example, to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to your main menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need additional information about this plugin, go to the plugin plugin website.
Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your employees in WordPress. Here are other free plugins you can look at:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Staff Directory lets you easily display a list of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
This plugin also lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)
Go here to learn more:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)
Faculty And Staff Directory provides 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 profiles in a widget area.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone, photo 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 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 uses simple shortcodes.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders 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.
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 device screen size.
Detailed information about each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
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 an online employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more:
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
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Models used to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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