Tag: Company Directory

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

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products online and get people to interact more on your site? Then help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Adding a directory of staff to your site can generate increased trust, boost your online credibility and get more prospects making enquiries.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to add a list of staff or faculty members to a WordPress site without messing with code.

How To Add An Employee Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you display basic information to visitors about your employee on your site.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your administration and from the admin menu section, choose 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 plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu will appear in your WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could start to add new staff entries at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your categories. In your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups section …

(Groups area)

Note: Adding directory groups is very similar to creating categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter a group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new group …

(Groups section)

If you manage a medium to large organization, having the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, developers, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

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

Your selected category open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group 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 the Update Group button when done to save your 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 groups)

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

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your employee’s name
• Permalink: You can change each 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: The employee’s role
• Email: The employee’s email address
• Phone Number: Add the employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter the person’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 employee or team member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory settings)

After you have entered details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group)

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

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

(New group added)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to a staff or team member’s details. To edit an 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 to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• The WP Dashboard Explained

Note: If a page error shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on using WordPress permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding new members to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your employees and their details …

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to modify an individual’s entry, just hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members info)

If you have many entries, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(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 select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which entries appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

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

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added all of your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin lets you create the style and layout of your staff list listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(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, here is the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

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

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list will now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess with 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 menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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

For example, a useful variation you can select to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Asia Pacific Region”])

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

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

You can also export your staff members data by going to your menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin site and contact the plugin developer.

Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use. Here are other free plugins you can look at:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This 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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

The plugin lets you set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

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 installs a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Company Directory lets you easily add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone, 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 – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just an individual person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

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 onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer

If the above plugins 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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff members in your website.

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

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