Tag: Company Directory

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

Are you looking for simple ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

If your site runs on the WordPress Content Management System, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your team, or your staff members using a staff list plugin.

This tutorial shows you how to create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff to your website.

How To Add A Staff Directory: Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily staff members.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the administration and in your admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring 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 see that a new entry will have been added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

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 staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory categories go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups section …

(Groups settings screen)

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

(Groups work like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category. 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 – Type in your group description
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new directory group …

(Groups settings)

If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories as you need 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 entering each item …

To edit or reassign Groups for an entry, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The item’s details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

Continue adding group names to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings area …

(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
• Slug: Change each employees’ slug (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory fields)

Once you have finished inputting your staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before adding new staff members, you can add a new group by clicking on 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 group and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new group will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(Groups box)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to a staff member’s details. To edit a group 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 typing 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 admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

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

• How To Navigate Inside The WP Control Panel

Note: If you have set up groups and get errors like the one shown below, check that you have set up your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)

To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

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

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding employee or faculty members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the staff profiles and their details …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to make changes to individual entries, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to update their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Edit Staff Members info)

If you have many employees, your table can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate member details if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which your staff details show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your 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 add your directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you 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 staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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 Template)

The The code shown above will display your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list will now look like …

(Directory with social media links added)

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

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.

A useful variation you can choose, for example, to display only members of 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 using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Options settings screen)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to the WordPress admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin support page and contact the plugin developer.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your faculty. For example, here are a few other plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.

You can also create custom fields …

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

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

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – WP Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just one single member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get 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 faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

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

More info:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

The Staffer plugin 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 onsite employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

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

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-maintain list of employees to your website using a free plugin.

Images of persons used to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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