Tag: Company Directory

Many business and marketing experts often raise the point that people generally buy from people they already know, like and trust.

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know you and your business better.

Adding a directory of staff to your website can help increase your credibility online and get interested prospects buying from your site.

In this tutorial, we explain how to add a list of staff members in your website using free WordPress plugins.

How To Add An Employee Directory To WordPress

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily display information to visitors about your staff on your website.

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

Log into the WordPress administration and in your admin menu section, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new entry will appear in the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could start adding new staff members at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your directory groups. From your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups settings screen …

(Groups area)

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

(Groups work like categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Type in 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 – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter a group description
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new directory group …

(Groups area)

If you work with a larger organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, project teams, departments, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

To change Groups for a specific entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

Your selected category open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

Continue adding groups to this section until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Slug: Change the slug for each staff member if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in the person’s role
• Email: Enter the employee’s email
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add the staff member’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add 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: Type in a profile description for your staff members here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory settings)

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

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group)

A field for entering a new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu that lets you 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 category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or modified. To edit an 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 filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To update your employee’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 WordPress admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:

• The WP Administration Area – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

(Not found error? Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to continue adding new details to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have added staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory items and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to modify individual details, hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want to edit the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can become unwieldy.

You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate a member if required …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order on the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered listings)

After adding your staff details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you edit the layout and style of your directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Your staff profiles will now display as as the screenshot below shows …

(Employee profiles with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

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

In your main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that you can use.

A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, 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=”customer representatives”])

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

Options Menu

In the dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

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

You can also export your staff members details by going to the WP admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List website.

Other Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. Here are other free plugins you can look at to add an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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 churches, teams, etc.

You can also insert custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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 a profile in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone number, image and staff 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 source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WP Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory 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 a staff directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

If the directory plugins listed above aren’t what you’re looking for, just go online or visit the WordPress plugin directory 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 helped you learn how to add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to your WordPress site.

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

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