Tag: Simple Staff List Plugin

Business experts have successfully demonstrated over the years that people generally buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products online, then help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a directory to your site is a great way to humanize your organization.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and add an updatable directory of employees or team members in WordPress using free WordPress plugins.

Adding An Employee List Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily display basic information to visitors about your staff on your website.

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

Log into your admin and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will appear in your WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin to add new staff members at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual group members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your directory groups. From your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups panel …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories …

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group name. 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 groups
4. Description – Enter the group description in this field
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create the new directory group …

(Groups settings area)

If you manage a medium to large organization, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories 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 the Add New Group button after creating new items …

To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The category open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category 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 choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click the Update Group button when done …

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

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Permalink: Modify the permalink URL associated with your employee if required (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s position
• Email: Enter the person’s email
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add 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. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign the person to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your employee’s details …

(Staff directory fields)

After you have finished inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on Add New Group …

The new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a staff or team 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 entering your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• The WordPress Dashboard Explained

Note: If you see an error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)

To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new details to your employee or faculty directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee or faculty members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table with all your staff profiles and their details …

(Staff Members table)

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

Click on Edit if you need to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from your staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find a member …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields to 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 unchecking a box hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin 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 menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its desired location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin lets you create the style and layout of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Templates screen)

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

For example, here is the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields display in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, 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 …

(Directory with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that you can use with the plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can select to display only members belonging 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 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 …

(Options settings)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export menu …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need help with this plugin, visit the Simple Staff List plugin website and request help from the plugin developer.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can look at to add an employee 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)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Staff Directory lets you easily create a directory of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.

You can also insert custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide 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 profiles in a widget area.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email, phone, photo and staff 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 employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, 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.

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 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 Employee Spotlight website)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add 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 of persons used in this tutorial to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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