Tag: Company Directory

Consumer behaviour studies show that people will buy from those they already know, like and trust.

Are you looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online and increase user interaction on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that lets you display a directory listing with information about your partners, your business team, or your staff.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add an easy-to-update simple staff directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required.

Adding An Employee Directory To Your Site

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

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

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

Log into your dashboard and in your admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu entry will show up in your WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just begin to add new employee entries after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place youremployees into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This opens up the Groups section …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Setting up directory groups is similar to creating categories in WordPress …

(Groups work just like categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
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 – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter a category description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new category …

(Groups area)

If you work with a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for partners, developers, departments, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

To change Groups for specific items, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The item’s details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group when done …

Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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: Type the staff member’s name
• Slug: Change the slug for each staff member if you want (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your staff member’s position
• Email: Type the person’s email address
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter your staff member’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your staff member’s Twitter username into this field (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. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign your staff member 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 your screen …

(Screen options tab)

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 staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member settings)

Once you have finished inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group …

A new directory category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a staff or faculty member’s details. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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

Click View Post …

To update the employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:

• The WordPress Dashboard – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have configured your site permalinks correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding more details to your directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table of all the staff profiles and the details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members table)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members profile)

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

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find entries if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to its desired location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that your employee profiles appear on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on the main menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to a new location …

(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin lets you customize the style and layout of your 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 Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, here is the Default Template …

(Default Plugin Template)

The The code shown above displays your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Staff profiles with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles 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 you can use.

For example, a useful shortcode 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=”sales managers”])

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

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options in your menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need any help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the plugin plugin site and contact the plugin developer.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out to create an employee directory on your site:

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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory 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 or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin lets you add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders 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 upon plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

Detailed information about  each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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: Staffer website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• Staff Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has shown you how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of staff in your web site.

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

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