Tag: Company Directory

Many business and marketing experts have successfully proven that people generally buy from people they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Adding a directory to your website is a great way to let visitors learn more about the team working behind your organization.

This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add a simple and easy-to-manage employee directory to WordPress.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a free WordPress plugin that lets you easily display basic information about your employee on your site.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WordPress 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 plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will appear in the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just begin to add new employee details at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff members.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups screen …

(Groups section)

Note: Adding groups works just like categories …

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Enter 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 if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter your group description
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up a new group name …

(Groups settings screen)

If you run a larger organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …

To change Groups for a particular entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected group details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your directory structure, the next step is to start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Type your employee’s name
• Slug: Here you can change the permalink URL for each staff member if required (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s role
• Email: Type in the staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Enter your employee’s phone number here
• Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter the employee’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your staff members here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can format content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member fields)

Once you have entered details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up groups 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 display 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 category and click on Add New Group …

The new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign your listing to the group …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to 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 typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …

Click View Post …

To edit your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Your WordPress Control Panel Explained

Note: If you have set up groups and get a page error like the one shown below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

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

To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here:

• Setting Up WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new members to your directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit an individual’s details, simply hover your mouse over their list name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from the employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate items if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that listings show on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your employee directory items 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 your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates page)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

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

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list should now look like …

(Directory listings with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with editing code or are unsure of 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.

A useful variation you can insert in 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=”senior staff”])

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

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Options screen)

Here you can change 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 plugin information)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin support page.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your staff. For example, here are a few other free plugins you can use:

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)

Learn more here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

You can also add custom fields …

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin was developed to provide 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.

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Company Directory lets you easily add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, image and member 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 read 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 also uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

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, and 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: Employee Spotlight website)

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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 employee directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-manage simple faculty members directory in your web site using free plugins.

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

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