No doubt you’ve heard that people generally will buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you are searching for simple ideas to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.
If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that lets you add a directory containing information about your partners, your team, or your staff members.
This tutorial will show you how to add a simple and easy-to-manage employee directory to your website.
Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free 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 build a simple staff directory for.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the WordPress dashboard and from the admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …
(WP 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)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will appear on the WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can begin to add new staff members at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualgroup members into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your groups go to your WordPress dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups screen …
(Groups section)
Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group. 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 nested categories
- Description – Type in a category description (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new directory group …
(Groups area)
If you manage a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, project teams, 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 organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To edit Groups for a particular item, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The item will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …
Click Update Group to save your changes …
Continue adding group names in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This screen provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify your employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in the person’s position here
- Email: Your employee’s email
- Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add your company’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 employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up 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 your employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you have finished entering details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group link)
A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
A new category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign a list entry to the group …
(New group)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee 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 your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can update your staff member’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
If you need help using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If you have set up groups and get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that your permalinks have been set up correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
If you need help setting up permalinks, go here:
Repeat the above process to add new entries to your employee directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all your staff profiles and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to make changes to an individual’s entry, just hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to modify the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
If you have many names to add, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate listing items if required …
(Search Staff Members search box)
You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which listings display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which listings show on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Plugin Template)
The This code displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List 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 …
(Use template tags to customize your listings page)
Your staff profiles will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …
(Directory with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with CSS styles and template tags or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations you can use with the plugin.
A useful 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=”sales managers”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options in your menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export screen …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the Simple Staff List website and contact the plugin author.
Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to build a directory of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are other plugins you can use for creating an employee directory on your site:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
With Staff Directory, you can easily create a directory of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin also lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress 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 a profile in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, pic 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 employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just one individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus 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: plugin website)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Staffer 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 almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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 Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple faculty members directory in your web site without messing with code.
Models used in this tutorial to depict staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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