It’s often said in marketing that people generally buy from people they know, like and trust.
Are you looking for inexpensive ways to grow your business online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.
If you use WordPress, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your business team, or your employees using a WordPress staff list plugin.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we explain how to easily add a simple faculty directory in your site without messing with code.
How To Easily Add An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress 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 create a basic staff directory for.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the dashboard and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will display on the main WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
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 employed in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can start adding new employee details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your groups go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups settings panel …
(Groups screen)
Note: Configuring directory groups is just like adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter a group description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new directory category …
(Groups section)
If you work with a medium to large organization, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories 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 the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To change Groups for individual items, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected category details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding group names to this section until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested categories)
After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to begin adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Permalink: Here you can edit your staff members’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in the staff member’s role
- Email: Enter the person’s email address into this field
- Phone Number: Enter the employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type 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: Type a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen options)
You can enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group feature)
A field for entering a new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …
A new group will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(Groups section)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing an employee’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 entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To modify the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If you have set up groups and get a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here:
Continue adding new details to your employee or faculty directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done adding staff details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all your staff members and any details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to edit individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu 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 an entry from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members profile information)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details 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 on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
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 listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that your staff members show on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its desired position …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to a desired position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
After adding your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to create the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your employee directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, reorganize 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 above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To make these fields display in the directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee listings will now display Facebook and Twitter links as as the screenshot below shows …
(Staff profiles with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.
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 WP admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.
A useful shortcode 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=”partners”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Choose Staff Members >Options on your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members details by going to your menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List support page.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your faculty members. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can use:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP 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)
For more details go here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
This plugin also lets you add custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: plugin website)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, plus as fields like title, email, phone number, pic and 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 employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets that let you 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 team member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
Staffer 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 onsite staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin 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:
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
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-update simple employee directory to your web site using a free plugin.
Images used to display staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)