Tag: Simple Staff List Template

It’s often said in business that people will mostly buy from those they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for simple ways to sell more products online or increase user interaction with your site, then something you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Adding a faculty member directory to your site is a great way to let visitors learn more about the team behind your organization.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list directory of staff members to your website with no coding skills required.

Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you create a basic staff directory list for.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WordPress admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(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)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will have been added to the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

All of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you can start to add new employee details at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups section …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Adding groups works just like categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version 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 a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in a group description
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new directory group …

(Groups screen)

If you are a larger organization, the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected group details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button when done …

To edit the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …

Click Update Group when done …

Add as many groups as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you are done setting up your directory structure, you can start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section loads in your web browser …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Slug: You can change the permalink URL associated with your employee if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type the employee’s position
• Email: Add your staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook address (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 staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options tab)

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 your staff member’s details …

(Staff directory settings)

After you are done entering your staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up groups before starting to add new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you 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 category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing 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 modify the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Using The WordPress Dashboard

Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your permalinks have been set up correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here:

• Setting Up WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more entries to your directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have entered all employee details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

If you need to modify individual entries, just hover over their name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members info)

If you have many names to add, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find listing items …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

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 Apply when done to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that your staff members appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

After adding your staff details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your employees show on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the desired location …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your staff 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 your menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

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

(Default Plugin Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To display these fields, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your employee listings will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as shown below …

(Directory with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with code or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, for example, to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

In the WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings)

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

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

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin support page and request help from the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your staff. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can check out for adding an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.

You can also add custom fields …

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

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

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like title, email, phone, photo and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each employee in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just a 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.

This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

Detailed information about  each employee 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:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for 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 plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create a simple and easy-to-update employee directory in your website.

Images of persons used to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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