Tag: Company Directory

No doubt you already know that people generally buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know your organization better.

If you have a WordPress-driven website, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to add a WordPress directory plugin that will let you display a directory containing information about your key people, your faculty, or your staff.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add an easy-to-update list of employees or faculty members in your web site.

How To Add A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you display basic information to visitors about your staff members on your site.

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

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

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new entry will appear on the main WP menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start to add new staff details at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your groups go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This opens up the Groups settings in your browser …

(Groups settings screen)

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

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in a group description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create the new directory group …

(Groups screen)

If you run a medium to large organization, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many categories 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 creating each new item …

To edit Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected item’s details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent drop-down 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 the Update Group button after making changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

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

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

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

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your staff member’s name
• Slug: Modify the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on 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 drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …

The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups 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).

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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your staff directory …

Click View Post …

You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar , go here:

• The WordPress Administration Screen – An Overview

Note: If an error like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have set up your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Page error – Check your permalinks)

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

• Changing Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new members to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit individual details, just hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want 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 remove a list item from your employee 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 table can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details if necessary …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on the WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to the new position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding your employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order that entries display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you create the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(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 Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default 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] tags to the template, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media URLs added)

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

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

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

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

Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

Finally, you can also export your staff members details by going to your WordPress admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, go to the plugin website.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. Here are a few other plugins you can check out to create a staff directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This 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)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin lets you use custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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 includes a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone, pic 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 sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, 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 on plugin activation.

Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, 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 circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

This 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 a staff 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.

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

If the above plugins 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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of employees to your website without editing code.

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

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