No doubt you’ve heard that people generally buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know your organization better.
Adding a directory of employees to your website can generate increased trust, boost your credibility online and get more prospects getting in touch with you.
This tutorial will show you how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your WordPress site.
WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff 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 – WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List lets you easily display information about your staff members on your website.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your WP admin and go to Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will appear on your WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
The Staff Members menu is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start adding new employee entries after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your groups go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This opens up the Groups settings screen …
(Groups settings area)
Note: Adding groups is just like adding categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
- Description – Type in a group description
- Click Add New Group when finished to create the new group name …
(Groups section)
If you are a larger organization, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories 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 groups)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected item open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click Update Group when done to save your changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you have finished setting up your groups, you can start adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member settings …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This area provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify each staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your employee’s role
- Email: Type in the person’s email
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook address into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your company’s Twitter username (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 employees here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can format content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign your employee to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
After you are done inputting details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group feature)
A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group …
Your new category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(Groups box)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to 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).
***
After filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …
Click View Post …
To modify the staff member’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar here:
Note: If a page error shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:
Repeat the above process to add new entries to your employee directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table of all your staff profiles and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to change individual entries, hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile details)
If you have added many entries to this section, your list can get quite long.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to find listing items if required …
(Search Staff Members search box)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Screen Options)
Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your employees show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to the desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
After adding all employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that listings display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the new position …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added members’ details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you edit 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 directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above example. To display these fields, we 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)
Here is what your directory will now look like …
(Directory with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.
A useful shortcode variation you can add, 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=”partners”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Options screen)
This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members details by going to your main menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List site and request help from the plugin author.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your faculty members in WordPress. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can use to create a directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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 here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Staff Directory lets you easily create a directory of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
This plugin lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin 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 profiles in a widget area.
Learn more about the plugin here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic and member 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 plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just one single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
This plugin includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
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)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
Staffer uses custom post types for staff management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your site …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more:
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 Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple employee directory in your web site using a free plugin.
Images used to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org