Tag: Employee Directory WordPress

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

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to grow your business online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know your business better.

If you run a WordPress site, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to use a WordPress staff list plugin that will let you add information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list of staff or team members to a WordPress site with no coding skills required.

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

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List lets you easily display information to visitors about your employee on your website.

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

Log into your dashboard and from the admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WP 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 …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu will appear in the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Configuring Simple Staff List

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start adding new staff entries at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings panel …

(Groups screen)

Note: Adding directory groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

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

(Groups settings area)

If you work with a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.

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

(Nested categories)

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

To edit Groups for an entry, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected item will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button after making changes …

Add as many groups as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

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

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member screen in your web browser …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Edit the permalink URL for your employee if required (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Add your staff member’s position here
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter your staff member’s Facebook URL (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: Add a profile description for your staff member here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign a staff or team member to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

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 of your employee’s details …

(Staff directory settings)

After you are done entering each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group)

A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …

A new directory category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(Groups feature)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee details. 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 typing in your employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Use Your WordPress Dashboard

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

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs

Repeat the above process to add new members to your employee or team directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you are done entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and the details you have added with each entry …

(Staff Members details list)

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

Click on Edit to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Edit Staff Members info)

If you have many items added to this section, your table can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details …

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that entries display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added all of your employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that entries appear on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

After adding all employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you create the layout and style of your employee directory entries 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 Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

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

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Your staff listings will now display as as shown below …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful variation you can insert in your page to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by using 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 …

(Options settings)

Here you can modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export screen …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need any help with the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin faq page and request help from the plugin author.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your faculty members. Here are some other free plugins you can look at to add a staff directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin provides 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.

For more details go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, plus as fields like title, email address, phone, pic and staff bio, allowing you to present 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 source: Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just one individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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

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

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

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 online staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory to in WordPress using a free WP plugin.

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

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