Tag: Simple Staff List Plugin

Business experts have successfully demonstrated that people tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

If you use WordPress, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that lets you add information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members.

This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to WordPress.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory In WordPress: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily display basic information about your staff on your website.

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

Log into the dashboard and from the admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu will have been added to your WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin adding new staff members after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups settings screen in your browser …

(Groups section)

Note: Setting up directory groups is very similar to creating categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Type in 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 – This section lets you set up nested groups
4. Description – Type in a category description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when done to create a new category …

(Groups settings area)

If you work with a business that employs many people, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, 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 organize these into a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating new items …

To change or reassign Groups for individual items, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The item’s details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click the Update Group button when done …

Continue adding categories to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Edit your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s role
• Email: Type the person’s email
• Phone Number: Type in the employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook address into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add 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: Enter a profile description for your employee here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the person 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)

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 of your staff member’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

Once you have entered details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group link)

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

The new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign an entry to the group …

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’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 typing in your employee’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 – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• The WP Dashboard Explained

Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to continue adding new details to your employee or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have finished entering staff or team members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory entries and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit individual details, hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want to make changes to the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate entries if necessary …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields to display in this screen. 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 select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which your staff profiles show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding all members’ details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you customize the style and layout of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the style and layout of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your main menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates page)

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

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

(Default Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List 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 include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the example below …

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Your staff listings will now display as as the example below shows …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess with template tags or are unsure of 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 lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.

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

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 the main admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export section …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need any help with the plugin, visit the Simple Staff List website.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your faculty members in WordPress. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out to create an employee directory on your site:

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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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

The plugin lets you set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory was developed to provide 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.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Plugin)

Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone, pic and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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 website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just a single member of your team 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 which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

Detailed information about  each faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update simple staff directory to a WordPress site with no coding skills required.

Models used to portray fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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