Tag: Company Directory

Consumer buying habits show that people will mostly buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to engage more on your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

If you run a WordPress website, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your faculty, or your employees using a WordPress directory plugin.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add an updatable simple faculty members directory in your web site using a free plugin.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you display information about your staff members on your site.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into the admin and from the admin menu, select 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 …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

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

(Staff Members menu)

All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could begin to add new staff details at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual members.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups section …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Adding groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create new groups 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. 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 nested groups
4. Description – Enter the category description here
5. Click Add New Group when done to create your new category …

(Groups settings area)

If you manage a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, 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 organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

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

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click Update Group when done to save your changes …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you are done setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Type your staff member’s name
• Slug: Here you can change your staff members’ permalink URL (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 position
• Email: Enter the employee’s email here
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your staff member’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in your employee’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employee here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can format content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign your employee to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

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 tab)

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

(Staff directory settings)

After you are done inputting details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up your directory groups before adding 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 new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …

The new category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign the entry to the group …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’s details. To edit a group entry, 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’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …

Click View Post …

To update the employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

If you need help using the admin toolbar , go here:

• Your WP Dashboard Explained

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

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Configuring WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more details to your employee or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your directory items and details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to change individual entries, just hover over their name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Edit 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 items if necessary …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the new location …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you create the style and layout of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the layout and style of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

To customize your directory listings, insert 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 listings …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your employee profiles will now display Facebook and Twitter links as shown in the screenshot below …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around 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 lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen displays all different shortcode variations you can use.

A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, for example, to display a list of persons belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”partners”])

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

Options Menu

In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

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

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

(Export Staff Members information)

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

Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a listing of your staff. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out to add a directory on your site:

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)

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also create custom fields …

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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 profiles in a widget area.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, 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 learn more about each employee in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory 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.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Staffer 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 employee directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

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

Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update staff directory to your website.

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

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