It’s often said in business and marketing that people generally tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.
Adding a faculty directory to your website can generate greater trust, increase your credibility online and get interested prospects to get in touch with you.
This tutorial shows you how to create an easy-to-manage directory of staff members in your WordPress site.
Adding An Employee List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List lets you easily staff members (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate this plugin.
Log into the WP administration and from the admin menu, select 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 Install Now …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will have been added to the main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Plugin Configuration
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin adding new staff entries at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings up the Groups settings area …
(Groups settings)
Note: Setting up groups works just like categories in WordPress …
(Groups work like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group name
- Slug – Type in the slug 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 nested groups
- Description – Type in your group description in this field (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to create the new category …
(Groups settings area)
If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for founders, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To edit or reassign Groups for an individual entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The item open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button to save your changes …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group when done …
Continue adding group names in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, click on 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 section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Permalink: Here you can change the permalink URL associated with each employee if required (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type your employee’s position here
- Email: Your employee’s email address
- Phone Number: Enter the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook URL into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add the employee’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
Once you have entered details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you did not set up directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group feature)
A field for creating a new group name will display, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
The new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person’s details to the group …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, see this tutorial:
Keep adding more details to your employee directory directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done adding employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to modify individual entries, hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Edit Staff Members details)
If you have many entries, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search field to find entries if necessary …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that entries display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its desired location …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which entries display on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to the new location …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to edit 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 staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Templates page)
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 used for displaying listings …
(Default Plugin Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To make these fields show in your directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …
(Use template tags to customize your directory page)
Your employee listings will now display Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …
(Staff profiles with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with code or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.
A useful variation you can decide to use, for example, to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”partners”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Options settings)
Here you can modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to the main menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin support page and contact the plugin author.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your employees in WordPress. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out for adding an employee directory on your website:
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)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
This plugin lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Faculty And Staff Directory provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone, image and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors can 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff 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 upon plugin activation.
With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin 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 onsite staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin 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:
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 List
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple staff directory to your WordPress site, so your web visitors can get to know your company better.
Images of persons used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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