Consumer buying habits show that people often tend to buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.
Are you looking for ideas to grow your business online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.
If you use WordPress, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your business team, or your employees using a staff list plugin.
This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your site.
How To Add An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List lets you easily staff.
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your admin and from the admin menu, choose 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 search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will have been added to your main WP menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
How To Configure The Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin to add new staff details at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your directory categories. From your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups settings screen …
(Groups screen)
Note: Adding directory groups is similar to creating categories in WordPress …
(Groups are like WordPress categories)
Create a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group name here
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up nested groups
- Description – Type in a group description (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create the new group …
(Groups settings area)
If you manage a medium to large organization, being able to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To change or reassign Groups for an individual item, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
Your selected item’s details will 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 edit the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to 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 brings up the Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member area)
This screen provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter the employee’s name
- Slug: Change the slug associated with your employee if required (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Add the person’s role
- Email: The staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: Type in the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add the employee’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: Type in a profile description for your staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the individual to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options)
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 staff member’s details …
(Add New Staff Member fields)
After you are done entering your staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for creating a group name will appear, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To update your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress 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)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:
Keep adding new entries to your employee directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all your staff profiles and details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to change an individual’s details, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members info)
If you have many names to add, your table can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate listing items if required …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
You can specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Screen Options tab)
Selecting a check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that entries display on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
After adding your member details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which your employee profiles appear on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to the new position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added all of your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you customize the layout and style of your directory entries 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 menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates screen …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Staff Loop 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 display these fields, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Here is what your listings page will now look like …
(Employee profiles with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess with code or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your directory 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 opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful shortcode variation you can choose, 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=”senior staff”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options on your main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export page …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need help with the plugin, go to the Simple Staff List faq page.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your employees. Here are some other plugins you can check out for adding a directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This 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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college 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 – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, image and bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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: plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just an individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and 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 circle grid. Screenshot source: plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
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 sourced from Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
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 Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-manage simple employee directory in your website.
Models used in this tutorial to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now