Tag: Simple Staff List Plugin

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

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online, then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Adding an employee directory to your website can help to let visitors learn more about the people behind the scenes in your organization.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add an easy-to-update staff directory to WordPress.

Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily create a simple staff directory list for.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WordPress administration and in your admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins panel, 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)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new entry will be added to your main WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

The Staff Members menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed in 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 directory, you could start to add new staff details at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your categories go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups settings screen …

(Groups area)

Note: Adding directory groups is similar to working with WordPress categories …

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. 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.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in a group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create a new group name …

(Groups section)

If you work with a larger organization, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

To edit Groups for specific items, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected item’s details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …

Click the Update Group button when done …

Continue adding groups to 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 directory structure, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Type your staff member’s name
• Slug: Edit your employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Add the person’s position here
• Email: Your staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter the person’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 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 staff or faculty member here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or faculty member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory settings)

After you have finished entering details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

The new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when a staff member’s details are being added or modified. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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After typing in your team member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can make changes to your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar , go here:

• Using The WordPress Control Page

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

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding more details to your directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have finished adding staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the staff profiles and the details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to make changes to individual details, hover over their name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to make changes to their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Editing Staff Members profile details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search field)

You can specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which your employees display on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to its desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

After adding all staff 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 also lets you create the layout and style of your staff 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 main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up 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 Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop 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] template tags, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page should now look like …

(Directory listings with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with CSS styles and template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations you can use.

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

Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In the main menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – 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 dashboard menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List support page and contact the plugin developer.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a listing of your team members in WordPress. Here are other free plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)

More info:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin 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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, image and staff 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just an 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 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 staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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 website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

Go here to learn more:

• Staffer – WP 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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-manage simple faculty directory in your site.

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

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