Many business and marketing experts often raise the point that people will buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online or get people to engage more on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.
If you use WordPress, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members using a staff list plugin.
This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add an easy-to-update directory of employees to your site.
Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site: Plugin Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into the administration and go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new entry will display on your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could start adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign youremployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This takes you to the Groups screen …
(Groups settings)
Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as configuring categories in WordPress …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group name
- 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.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested categories
- Description – Enter your category description here
- Click Add New Group when finished to set up your new directory group …
(Groups area)
If you work with a larger organization, the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To edit Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The selected category open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding group names to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to begin to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This screen provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Permalink: Modify each staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your employee’s position
- Email: The staff member’s email
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in your staff member’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your company’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 in a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
After you are done entering your staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you have not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field for entering a group name will display, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
A new group will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a person’s details. To edit an 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 employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can modify the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
For a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Page error – Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Keep adding new entries to your staff directory directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the directory items and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to modify an individual’s entry, hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Edit Staff Members profile)
If you have many entries, your table can get quite long.
You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find items …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which entries show on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired location …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list items)
Once you are done adding employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which your employees appear on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list items)
After adding all member details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you customize the layout and style of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your main 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, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Plugin 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 example. To make these fields show up in the directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown in the example below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your staff details will now appear with Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …
(Employee profiles with social media URLs added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can select 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
Click Staff Members >Options on your main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Options screen)
Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export page …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List support page and request help from the plugin developer.
Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your faculty in WordPress. Here are some other free plugins you can use:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)
Go here to learn more:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
You can also add custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, photo and staff 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 staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin 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 employee directory on your site …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
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
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of staff members in your site.
Images of models used to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum