Tag: Simple Staff List Template

You have no doubt heard that people generally will buy from those they already know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to grow your business online or get people to interact more with your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your organization better.

If your website uses the WordPress CMS, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your business team, or your staff members using a WordPress staff list plugin.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and add an updatable simple employee directory in WordPress using a free plugin.

Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you create a simple staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your WP admin and go to 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 plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will be added to your main WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

This menu is where you will manage and configure 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 in your team and how you want to structure your directory, you can start to add new staff details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your group members.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups screen …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Adding directory groups works in the same way as configuring categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in the category description (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up your new directory category …

(Groups settings screen)

If you manage a medium to large organization, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories 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 entering new items …

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

Your selected group details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new group 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 select Quick Edit …

Click on Update Group  when done to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

After you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Modify the slug for each staff member if required (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type the employee’s position
• Email: Enter the person’s email
• Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Add the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add your employee’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 member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: 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 your screen …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory fields)

Once you have entered details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

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 selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for creating a group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group …

The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or modified. 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 entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your staff directory …

Click View Post …

To edit the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:

• How To Navigate Around Your WordPress Dashboard

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

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding more members to your employee directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list of all your staff members and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to change individual details, just hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members info)

If you have many entries, your list can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to find member details if required …

(Search Staff Members search field)

You can specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also select how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which your staff profiles show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on the main menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ listing 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 allows you to specify the order that listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to a new position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to edit the style and layout of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – 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, below is the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The The code shown above will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To display these fields, you 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 the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Your directory entries will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as the screenshot below shows …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to 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, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

A useful shortcode variation you can select, 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=”customer representatives”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings)

This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin

You can also export your staff members info by going to your main menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin support, go to the plugin plugin site.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to display a directory of your staff in WordPress. For example, here are a few other plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

Learn more here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin 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 a profile in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin lets you add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like title, email, phone, photo and bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just a single member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

Staffer uses custom post types for 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: Staffer 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:

• Staffer

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-manage list of staff members to your WordPress site using a free plugin.

Models used in this tutorial to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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