Tag: Company Directory

You have no doubt heard that people often tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.

Are you looking for ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a directory to your site can help to generate more trust, increase your credibility online and get interested prospects making enquiries.

In this tutorial, we show you how to add an easy-to-maintain simple faculty directory in WordPress using free WP plugins.

How To Easily Add An Employee Directory

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 lets you easily employee.

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your admin and go to 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  – plugin search results)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu entry will have been added to the main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin adding new employee entries at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualgroup members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your directory groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups section …

(Groups area)

Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as adding categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in your category description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create a new category …

(Groups section)

If you are a medium to large organization, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

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

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button 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 categories)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings area …

(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: Enter your staff member’s name
• Slug: You can edit the slug for each employee if required (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the individual to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you have entered each staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have 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 feature)

A field for entering a group name will display, 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 …

Your new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign a person to the group …

(New group added in Groups section)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or modified. 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 employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can update the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

If you need help using the dashboard admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Navigate Around The WordPress Dashboard

Note: If you see ’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)

If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial:

• How To Set Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your staff or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your staff profiles and any details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to modify an individual’s entry, simply hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile info)

If you have many employees, your table can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate items …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(Screen Options tab)

Selecting a check box 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 preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the new position …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that entries show on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its desired position …

(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

To customize the style and layout of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory, insert any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Here is what your staff list will now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess 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 main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

A useful shortcode variation you can choose, for example, to display a list of staff 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 make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List faq page.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP 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 here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

This plugin also lets you insert custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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 this plugin:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

With Company Directory, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, photo and staff 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, 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.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

Staffer 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 source: Staffer website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site 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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

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

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

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