Tag: Simple Staff List Plugin

Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people generally tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know your business better.

If you use WordPress, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your business team, or your staff members using a WordPress staff list plugin.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your web site.

Adding An Employee List Directory In WordPress: Tutorial

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily staff members (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your administration and go to Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress 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 the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will be added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Plugin Configuration

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

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Configuring directory groups is very similar to creating categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Enter 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 to set up nested groups
4. Description – Type in your group description in this field
5. Click Add New Group when done to create a new directory group …

(Groups area)

If you work with a larger organization, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for partners, project teams, departments, etc.

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

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

Your selected group details will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …

Click on Update Group  when done …

Continue adding groups to this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Here you can modify the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type the employee’s position here
• Email: Type in your staff member’s email address here
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address (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: Type in a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up categories before adding 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 new group name will display, with a dropdown menu to 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 created. Remember to tick the check box to assign your listing to the group …

(Groups section)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to a person’s details. 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 filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can modify your employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• The WordPress Dashboard – An Overview

Note: If you see a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …

(Page error – Check your permalinks)

For a detailed tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks

Keep adding more members to your employee directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory items and the details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to make changes to individual entries, simply hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members profile)

If you have many entries, your table can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate entries …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

(Screen Options tab)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that listings show on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to its desired location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered listings)

After adding your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your employee profiles 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 item to a new location …

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you edit 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 staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is the Default Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your staff listings will now display as as shown below …

(Employee profiles with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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

For example, a useful variation you can decide to use to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”property managers”])

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

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Options screen)

Here you can change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

You can also export your staff members details by going to your main menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin faq page and request help from the plugin author.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to display a listing of your staff in WordPress. Here are some other free WordPress plugins you can look at:

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)

Go here to learn more:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also create custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory 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 profiles in a widget area.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, photo 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details go here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just an individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and 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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin uses custom post types for staff/employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

If the directory plugins listed above aren’t what you’re looking for, just go online or visit the WordPress plugin directory and search for:

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable simple faculty members directory to your WordPress site without coding skills.

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

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