Business experts have successfully demonstrated that people generally will buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you are looking for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust your business better.
If your website uses the WordPress CMS, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your team, or your staff using a directory plugin.
This step-by-step tutorial explains how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of employees in WordPress.
How To Add An Employee Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily display basic information about your employee on your site.
First, let’s install and activate this plugin.
Log into your WordPress administration and in your admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, 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)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will appear on your WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
All of the settings for the Simple Staff List 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 directory, you can just begin to add new employee entries at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place youremployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your directory groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups settings panel …
(Groups settings screen)
Note: Setting up groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group name here
- 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.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested categories
- Description – Enter the category description here (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new category …
(Groups settings screen)
If you are a business that employs many people, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group 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 hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To change or reassign Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …
The group will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested categories)
Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to begin to add 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 settings area …
(Add New Staff Member screen)
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: Your staff member’s name
- Permalink: Change your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: The staff member’s position
- Email: The staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type 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 use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or team member to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your 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 of your employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you are done entering details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group)
A field for creating your new group name will display, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group …
A new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee details. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After filling in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To make changes to the employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Continue adding new members to your staff or team directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the staff profiles and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to make changes to individual details, hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members details)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search field to find member details if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which your employees display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order that your employee profiles appear on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its new location …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added all of your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you create the layout and style of your 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 your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, reorganize any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To make these fields display in your directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee listings will now display as as shown below …
(Directory listings with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are unsure of what to do, 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 dashboard menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Usage Shortcode screen)
This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
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=”property managers”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to the dashboard menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the Simple Staff List support page and request help from the plugin author.
Other Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your team members in WordPress. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out for adding a directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
The Modern Team Staff Directory 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)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
This plugin lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Faculty And Staff Directory was developed to provide 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:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, as well 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 read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)
This plugin uses simple shortcodes.
Learn more about the plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one single member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on 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 device screen size.
Detailed information about each team 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)
More info:
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 a staff directory on your site …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
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 Directory Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of employees in in WordPress using a free WordPress plugin.
Images of models used to portray fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com