Tag: Company Directory

Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your website will help humanize your organization.

This tutorial explains how to create an easy-to-manage staff directory in your WordPress site.

Adding A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you staff members (you could also use it to display faculty, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your WordPress dashboard and from the admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …

(WP 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)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new entry will display on your main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring Simple Staff List

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your directory, you can start adding new entries at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your groups. In your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Adding groups is similar to working with categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group. 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 nested groups
4. Description – Enter your group description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new category …

(Groups section)

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

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

(Nested groups)

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

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

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

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click Update Group when done …

Continue adding groups to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the employee’s name
• Slug: Change your staff members’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s position
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter your employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in 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 employee here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign an employee or faculty member to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add New Staff Member fields)

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

(Groups box)

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

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field will display allowing you to enter 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 directory category and click on Add New Group …

A new category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign your employee’s details to the group …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’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 the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can make changes to the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Your WordPress Dashboard – A Tutorial

Note: If you see errors like the one shown below, check that you have set up your permalinks correctly …

(Not found error? Check your permalinks)

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

• Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding more details to your staff or member directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished adding staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the listing entries and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit individual entries, hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items if required …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that your staff profiles display on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to the new location …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered listings)

After adding your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the style and layout of your staff 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 main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Your staff entries will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the screenshot below …

(Directory listings with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

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

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

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options 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 menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the Simple Staff List support page.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to display a directory of your faculty members in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

Go here to learn more:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

You can also insert custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory provides 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 a profile in a widget area.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing you to present 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 sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just one single member of your team in a 4-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 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 employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress 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 onsite employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Staffer works immediately 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 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 Directory Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to add an easy-to-update staff directory to your website.

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

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