Tag: Company Directory

It’s often said in marketing that people will buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

If you use WordPress, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that will let you display information about your key partners, your team, or your staff members.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff members to your site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you easily create a basic staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your WP dashboard and go to 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)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

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

(Staff Members menu)

All of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could start adding new employee entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups settings …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your group 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 a category description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create a new group name …

(Groups section)

If you work with a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

To change or reassign Groups for individual entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The category open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

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

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

After you are done setting up your directory structure, you can start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member profile and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Slug: Here you can change the slug for your staff member if you want (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The employee’s position
• Email: Your staff member’s email
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook URL (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 employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

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

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group 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 dropdown 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 directory category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …

(New group added in Groups section)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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

Click View Post …

To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• Your WordPress Control Screen – A Tutorial

Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

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

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs

Repeat the above process to continue adding more members to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

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

Click on Edit to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate listing items …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which entries show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

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.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order that your employee listings appear on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to a desired position …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List allows you to customize the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Templates page)

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

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page should now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that you can use.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to display a list of staff or team members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Asia Pacific Region”])

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Options settings screen)

Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

Finally, you can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export screen …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the plugin website and request help from the plugin developer.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your staff. For example, here are other plugins you can use for creating a directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

The plugin lets you add custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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 or university.

The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone number, photo 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 employee 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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WP Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, 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.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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)

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for staff/employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

Go here to learn more:

• Staffer – WP 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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create a simple and easy-to-maintain staff directory in your website.

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

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