Tag: Company Directory

Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people generally will buy from people they already know, like and trust.

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a directory of staff to your site can help increase your credibility online and get more prospects buying from you.

This step-by-step tutorial explains how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory in WordPress.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory: Tutorial

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 – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you create a simple staff directory for.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

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

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu will show up in the main WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring Simple Staff List

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can start adding new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your categories. From your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups settings screen …

(Groups screen)

Note: Setting up groups works in the same way as configuring categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
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 categories
4. Description – Type in a group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new category …

(Groups screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, project teams, faculties, 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 hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

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

Your selected category details will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group to save your changes …

Continue adding group names in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Slug: Edit each employees’ slug (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The employee’s position
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Type in the person’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter your staff member’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 a profile description for your staff member here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign a staff or faculty member to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …

(Staff directory settings)

After you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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

A new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …

(New group added in Groups box)

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

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

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

• Your WP Admin Screen Explained

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

(Check your permalinks if you get a page error)

To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up WordPress Permalinks

Keep adding new members to your staff directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have finished entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list of all the employees and all details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members list)

If you need to modify individual details, simply hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members profile)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate a member if required …

(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 on Screen Options …

(Screen Options)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your staff entries show on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order in the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its desired location …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to the desired position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding all member listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you create the layout and style of your staff directory listings 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 brings up the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code displays your listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Here is what your directory will now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with editing code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

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, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

A useful variation you can decide to use, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Gold Level associates”])

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

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in your menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)

This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to the main admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

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

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are a few other free plugins you can look at:

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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, plus as fields like job title, email, phone number, photo and staff 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

Go here to learn more:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just a single member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

The Staffer 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 onsite staff 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.

More info:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

If the directory plugins listed above 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 and create a simple employee directory to your WordPress site without editing code, so your web visitors can get to know you and the people in your organization better.

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

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