Tag: Employee Directory WordPress

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

Are you looking for ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know your business better.

Adding a directory of staff or faculty members to your site can help to generate increased trust, increase your online credibility and get interested prospects contacting you.

This tutorial explains how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain staff directory to your web site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your Site

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you create a basic staff directory for.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

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

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will have been added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualgroup members into.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your directory categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups panel …

(Groups screen)

Note: Configuring groups works just like categories …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter the group description (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up the new directory group …

(Groups area)

If you manage a business that employs many people, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

To edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Slug: Modify the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (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 the person’s position here
• Email: The staff member’s email
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook address here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in your company’s Twitter username here (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 format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory settings)

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

(Groups section)

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

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

The new category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign a staff member to the group …

(New group added in Groups section)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to an employee or team member’s 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’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:

• The WP Dashboard Explained

Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to add new members to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you are done entering employees to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the staff profiles and their details …

(Staff Members details list)

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

Click on Edit to update the item’s 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 clicking View …

(Edit Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate items if required …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide specific fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which entries appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that listings show on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to a new location …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding all of your staff details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(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 the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Staff profiles with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with editing code 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, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations that you can use.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can decide to use to display a list of persons belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

You can also make your listings display 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 screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

Here you can change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

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

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin faq page.

Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. Here are a few other free plugins you can look at:

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)

Go here to learn more:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

This plugin lets you insert custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, plus as fields like title, email, 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 members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

For more details go here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

Detailed information about  each employee 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)

More info:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WP 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 an online staff directory …

(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.

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Staffer

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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple staff directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

Images used to display fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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