Consumer behavior research shows that people generally tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online and get people to interact more on your site? Then make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.
Adding a directory of staff to your site can help to let visitors learn more about the team working behind your organization.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add an easy-to-update simple faculty directory to WordPress using a free plugin.
WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you staff.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into your dashboard and from the admin menu section, 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 plugin search results.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will be added to the main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings and options for this 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 employee directory, you can just start adding new staff details at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups screen …
(Groups settings screen)
Note: Adding groups is just like setting up categories …
(Groups work just like categories)
Create a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in a category description (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new category …
(Groups area)
If you are a medium to large organization, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To edit Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
Your selected category details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding categories in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The staff member’s name
- Permalink: Modify your employees’ slug (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: The employee’s position
- Email: Your employee’s email
- Phone Number: Type the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add your employee’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
You will see options to enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you are done entering each of you staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up categories before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group)
A field for creating a group name will appear, 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 group will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(Groups section)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to an employee or faculty 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 filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your staff directory …
Click View Post …
To update the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Keep adding new members to your employee directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have finished adding employees into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list of all the listing entries and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to edit an individual’s entry, hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members profile details)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search field to locate entries if necessary …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options)
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 the Apply button when done to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which listings appear on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the new position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added member 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 that lets you set the order in which entries appear on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to the new location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list)
Once you are done adding all of your staff details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you edit the layout and style of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, 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 Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To make these fields display in the directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Here is what your listings page will now look like …
(Directory listings with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with CSS code and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can insert in your page to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”property managers”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export screen …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin plugin site.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your employees in WordPress. Here are some other plugins you can look at for creating a staff directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
The plugin lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, plus as fields like title, email address, phone number, pic and 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just a single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
With this plugin, you also get two sidebar widgets which 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 employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer)
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 source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
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 Directory Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple faculty members directory to a WordPress site without coding skills.
Images used in this tutorial to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)