Business experts have successfully proven that people will buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online and increase user interaction on your site, then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know your organization better.
Adding a staff directory to your site is a great way to personalize your organization.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add a simple team members directory in a WordPress site without coding skills.
Adding A Staff Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to 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 lets you easily display information about your employee on your website.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the dashboard and from the admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new entry will have been added to your main WP menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
All of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
How To Configure The Plugin
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just begin to add new employee details at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your members.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This opens up the Groups settings in your browser …
(Groups area)
Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as adding categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Create a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the slug of your category. 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 – Enter a group description
- Click Add New Group when done to set up your new group …
(Groups settings)
If you are a business that employs many people, being able to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested groups 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 the Add New Group button after entering each item …
To edit or reassign Groups for individual entries, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The group details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group when done …
Add as many categories as you need to 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 are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This area provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Permalink: Edit the slug associated with your employee if required (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Add the person’s role
- Email: Your staff member’s email
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign your employee 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 features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
After you have entered each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up your directory groups 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 for entering your group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …
A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group added)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a person’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 entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can modify the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If an error like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here:
Keep adding more entries to your staff directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have finished adding staff members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the staff profiles and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to make changes to individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove an entry from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate member details …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that entries display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
After adding all employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its new position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List also lets you customize the style and layout of your staff directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Template)
The This code will display your listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List 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, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)
Your directory profiles will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …
(Directory listings with social media URLs)
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 listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.
For example, a useful variation you can add to 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 trainers”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export screen …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the Simple Staff List faq page.
Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. Here are other plugins you can use for creating a 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)
Learn more here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
With Staff Directory, you can easily create a directory of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
You can also use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
This 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 a profile in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With Company Directory, you can add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, pic and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors will be able to 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 simple shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
With this plugin, you also get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer)
Staffer uses custom post types for 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 plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Learn more about the 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 Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable list of staff members to in WordPress without touching code.
Images used in this tutorial to portray fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group