Category: WordPress Plugins

It’s often said in business and marketing that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory of employees or faculty members to your website can help boost your online credibility and get more prospects buying from your site.

This tutorial shows you how to create an easy-to-update directory of employees in WordPress.

How To Add A Staff List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you display information about your staff on your website.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into the admin 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 Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu will show up in your main WP menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

Here is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

Configuring Simple Staff List

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups screen …

(Groups settings area)

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

(Groups work just like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

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

(Groups settings)

If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for partners, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member area …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: You can modify the permalink URL associated with each staff member if you want (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Enter the person’s role
• Email: The employee’s email address
• Phone Number: Type the staff member’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 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 in a profile description for your staff member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML in 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 your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you are done entering each of you staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up categories 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 appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on Add New Group …

A new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign your list item to the group …

(New group added)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. 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 typing in your employee or team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:

• How To Navigate Around The WordPress Administration Screen

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

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

If you need help setting up permalinks, go here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding new details to your staff directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details list)

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

Click on Edit to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

If you have many employees, your table can become unwieldy.

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

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings display on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

After adding all employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you customize the style and layout of your employee 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 menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates screen)

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

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

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

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

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

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

Your employee listings will now display as as the example below shows …

(Directory listings with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks 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 being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.

For example, a useful variation you can insert in your page 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 trainers”])

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options in your menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Options screen)

Here you can modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export menu …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the Simple Staff List site.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

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

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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

You can also add custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory 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 – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

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

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just an 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.

This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus 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 circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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 employee directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

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

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has explained how to create and add an easy-to-update employee directory in WordPress.

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

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