Category: WordPress Plugins

Many business experts have successfully demonstrated that people will buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

If your website is powered by the WordPress CMS, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to use a WordPress directory plugin that will let you display information about your partners, your faculty, or your staff.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add a simple staff directory to your website using free WP plugins.

Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you employee.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WordPress administration and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new entry will appear in your WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just start to add new employee entries at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual members.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory categories go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups settings area …

(Groups settings)

Note: Adding directory groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version 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 section to set up nested groups
4. Description – Enter your group description here (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new category …

(Groups settings area)

If you manage a business that employs many people, the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories as you need 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 new items …

To edit Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected group details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This opens up the Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

This page provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: Enter your employee’s name
• Slug: You can edit the permalink URL associated with each staff member if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type the person’s role
• Email: Add the person’s email
• Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number here
• Facebook URL: Type your employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add the person’s Twitter username into this field (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see above 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 will see options to 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 fields)

Once you have entered each staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

A field will appear allowing you to create 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 group and click on the Add New Group button …

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

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a person’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 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 the WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Your WP Dashboard Explained

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

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using WordPress permalinks here:

• Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs

Repeat the above process to add more members to your directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members list)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find entries if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to the new position …

(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added staff details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added member listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List allows you to customize the style and layout of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

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

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code displays your listing as shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful variation you can select to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”technical engineers”])

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

Options Menu

In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

You can also export your staff members info by going to the main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List plugin website and contact the plugin developer.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. For example, here are some other free plugins you can look at for creating a directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory 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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

You can also use custom fields …

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

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone number, photo and staff 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 also uses a simple shortcode system.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one single 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 selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory 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 employee directory on your website …

(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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee or faculty directory to your WordPress site without using code, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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