Tag: Simple Staff List Plugin

Something often said in business and marketing circles, is that people generally tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

Adding a directory to your website can generate increased trust, increase your online credibility and get more prospects to buy from your site.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your site using a free plugin.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List 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 is free and lets you easily display information to visitors about your employee on your site.

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into the WP dashboard and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will appear in your main WP menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings and options for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin to add new entries at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups panel …

(Groups screen)

Note: Setting up groups is similar to creating categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Enter 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 nested categories
4. Description – Type in your category description here
5. Click Add New Group when done to create the new category …

(Groups settings)

If you run a business that employs many people, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, faculties, 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 hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering each item …

To edit Groups for individual entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

The group will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group after making changes …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This opens up the Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your staff member’s name
• Slug: You can edit the permalink URL for your staff member if you want (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add Staff Member fields)

After you have entered details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up your directory groups before starting to add new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group link)

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

Your new group will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(Groups box)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing someone’s details. To edit a group entry, 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 the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can modify your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar here:

• How To Navigate Inside The WP Control Area

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

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

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

• Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding more entries to your employee directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and details you have added with each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to change individual details, just hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Editing Staff Members info)

If you have many entries, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find entries if required …

(Search members)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its new location …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

After adding all member details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which your staff entries appear on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding all member details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, here is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To display these fields, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown below …

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Your employee entries will now display with Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …

(Directory listings with social media links)

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

Usage Menu

As well as 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, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can select to display a list of individuals belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Options settings screen)

This section lets you edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

Finally, you can also export your staff members details by going to your main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin support, go to the plugin site.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Company Directory lets you easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone, photo and bio, allowing you to present 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 in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just a single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

This plugin 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 employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer

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 Directory Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable simple team members directory to your website using free WordPress plugins.

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

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