Tag: Company Directory

Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people generally will buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust your organization better.

If your website uses the WordPress CMS, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a WordPress directory plugin that lets you add information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to easily create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your website using free WordPress plugins.

Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory In WordPress

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

Simple Staff List

(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 employee on your website.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your admin and go to Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu will be added to the main WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just begin adding new staff member details at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your categories. From your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This opens up the Groups settings screen …

(Groups screen)

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

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group 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 nested categories
4. Description – Type in your group description in this field
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create the new directory group …

(Groups area)

If you run a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many groups 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 creating new items …

To edit Groups for an individual entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected category details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …

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 categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

After you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Slug: Change your employees’ slug (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The employee’s role
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username into this field (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 members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your employee’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

Once you have finished entering each of you staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can add a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group)

A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new directory category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added via Groups section)

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 above for details).

***

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

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• The WordPress Dashboard Explained

Note: If you get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that your site’s permalinks have been set up correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get a ‘page not found’ error)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and any details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s details, simply hover over their name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to update their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Edit Staff Members profile details)

If you have added many items to this section, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find member details …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that listings show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you create the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates screen)

To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowable 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 Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Your directory profiles will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as as shown below …

(Directory 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 not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

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

In your main menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

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

A useful shortcode variation you can choose, for example, to display a list of employees or faculty members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”senior staff”])

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

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Options settings)

This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List faq page and request help from the plugin author.

Other Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your team members. Here are some other free WordPress plugins you can check out for adding an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory 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)

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.

This plugin also lets you set up custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory

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 profiles in a widget area.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone, photo 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 shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, 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.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

This 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 site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staffer – WP Plugin

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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has explained how to create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to your web site.

Models used to display staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

***