No doubt you’ve already heard that people often tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to engage more with your site, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your organization better.
Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your site can help let visitors learn more about the team working behind the scenes in your organization.
In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to add an easy-to-update list directory of employees or team members in your website using a free WordPress plugin.
Adding An Employee Directory To Your Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you staff (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).
First, let’s install and activate this plugin.
Log into the WP admin and in your admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, a new entry will display on your main WP menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just begin adding new employee details at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualgroup members into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your directory groups. In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This opens up the Groups settings …
(Groups area)
Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as configuring categories in WordPress …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group. 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 categories
- Description – Enter your group description here (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to set up your new group …
(Groups screen)
If you work with a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To edit Groups for specific entries, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The group details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group after making 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 categories)
After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Permalink: Modify your employees’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Add the person’s role here
- Email: Your staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add the person’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or faculty member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
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)
Once you have entered details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by selecting 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 to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …
A new group will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. 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 staff member’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 admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:
Note: If an error like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have set up your permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this tutorial:
Continue adding new entries to your staff or member directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list of all your directory items and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to make changes to individual details, just hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can become unwieldy.
Use the Search Staff Members search field to find entries …
(Search members)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished 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 in which your employees display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added members’ 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 allowing you to arrange the order that your employees display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its desired position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
After adding all member details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to create the style and layout of your directory items 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 …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The The code shown above will display your listing as shown below …
(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields display in the directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your directory page)
Here is what your staff list should now look like …
(Staff profiles with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings 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 assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
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=”partners”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In the dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details by going to the menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the plugin site and request help from the plugin developer.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your team members. For example, here are other free plugins you can look at for creating a staff directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Modern Team Staff Directory 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 about this plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
You can also use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)
Learn more here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin was developed to provide 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 a profile in a widget area.
Learn more here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like title, email address, phone number, pic 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 learn more about each staff member 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.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one individual member of your team in a four-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, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
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 plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site 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 an employee 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.
Learn more here:
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 Directory Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple staff directory to your WordPress site, so your site visitors can get to know you and the people in your company better.
Models used to portray fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now