Tag: Simple Staff List Template

No doubt you already know that people will mostly buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online or increase user interaction with your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that will let you add a directory containing information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily create and add an easy-to-update list directory of staff members to your site using free WP plugins.

Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you easily display information to visitors about your staff on your website.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into the administration and navigate to 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 plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will show up in your main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

Here is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualmembers into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory categories. From your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This opens up the Groups settings …

(Groups area)

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

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category 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 drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in the category description here (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new directory group …

(Groups settings screen)

If you work with a medium to large organization, the ability to assign people to different categories 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

To change Groups for an individual entry, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected group open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click on Update Group  to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your staff member’s name
• Slug: Here you can edit the slug associated with each staff member if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s role
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Type in the employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter the person’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff members here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into 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 your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you are done entering details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up 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 create a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

A new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’s details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).

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After filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …

Click View Post …

You can update the staff member’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• Your WordPress Dashboard – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding new members to your staff directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details)

If you need to edit an individual’s details, hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove an entry from the employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Edit Staff Members details)

If you have many employees, your table can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to find a member if necessary …

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

After adding your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order that your employee profiles appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to a new position …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop 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 listing. To display these fields, you will need to include 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 links)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff 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 help.

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.

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

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin

You can also export your staff members info by going to the WordPress admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need help with this plugin, go to the plugin support page.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

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

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin also lets you insert custom fields …

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

Go here to learn more:

• Staff Directory

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 installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to learn more about each employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one individual person in a four-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 that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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

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

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

Staffer 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 employee directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

Learn more here:

• Staffer

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

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory to your site.

Images of models used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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