It’s often said in business that people will buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
If you are searching for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for prospects to get to know you and your organization better.
Adding a directory of employees to your website can help increase your credibility online and get more prospects to request quotes or more information.
This tutorial shows you how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory in your website.
Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory In WordPress
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you easily display information to visitors about your staff members on your website.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the admin and from the admin menu section, select 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 search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu will appear in the WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start to add new staff entries at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your directory categories. From your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups settings panel …
(Groups settings)
Note: Configuring directory groups is just like adding categories in WordPress …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- 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.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested groups
- Description – Enter your category description here
- Click Add New Group when finished to create a new directory category …
(Groups area)
If you manage a medium to large organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To change or reassign Groups for an entry, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected group open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update to save your changes …
To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested groups to your staff directory)
Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WordPress admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member screen)
This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Slug: Edit your staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: The employee’s position
- Email: The staff member’s email
- Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add your company’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff member here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(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 your staff member’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
After you are done entering details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group feature)
A field for creating your group name will display, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …
The new category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …
(New group added)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’s details. To edit an 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 filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If you have set up groups and get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Continue adding new details to your employee or team directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table with all the directory items and details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to edit an individual’s details, just hover over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
If you have many employees, your list can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find items if required …
(Search Staff Members search box)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(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 Apply when done to save 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 that your employee listings show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which entries show on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin allows you to create the style and layout 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 dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above example. To make these fields show up in your directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee profiles will now display as as the screenshot below shows …
(Directory with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with CSS styles and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory 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 page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the plugin lets you use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can choose to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on your main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Options settings)
Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details by going to the menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List plugin site.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your faculty members in WordPress. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can check out:
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)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
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, teams, etc.
You can also use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Faculty And Staff Directory 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 profiles in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone, photo and 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 staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin uses shortcodes.
Go here to learn more:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
With Employee Spotlight, you also get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.
Detailed information about each faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staffer
(Staffer)
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 employee directory on your website …
(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:
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 List
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee directory to your WordPress site, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Images used to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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