No doubt you’ve heard that people generally tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online or increase user interaction on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.
Adding an employee directory to your site can help personalize your business.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to easily add an updatable list of staff or team members in your website using free WordPress plugins.
How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site
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 a free plugin that lets you easily display information about your employee on your website.
First, let’s install and activate the plugin.
Log into your dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu will be added to the main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just start to add new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your directory groups go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This loads the Groups settings area …
(Groups screen)
Note: Adding groups works just like categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your category name
- 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.
- Parent – Use this section to set up nested categories
- Description – Type in a group description in this field (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new group …
(Groups settings)
If you run a larger organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To edit Groups for an entry, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …
The category open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group when done to save your changes …
Add as many group names as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you are done setting up your directory structure, the next step is to start to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen in your web browser …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
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: Your staff member’s name
- Slug: Modify your employees’ slug (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 employee’s position
- Email: The employee’s email address
- Phone Number: The staff member’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: Type your company’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign an employee or team member to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you have entered details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up directory groups before starting to add staff member details, 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. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …
The new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group added)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a staff member’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 entering your team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
To update the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
If you need help using the admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:
Note: If you have set up groups and get ’not found’ page errors like the one shown below, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …
(Not found error? Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Continue adding new details to your staff or faculty directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done entering staff or team members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the employees and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to change an individual’s entry, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members profile details)
If you have many names to add, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate entries …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Selecting a check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that entries show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its new location …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you are done adding member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order that your employees display on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to the new location …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to edit 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 staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The The code shown above displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in your directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …
(Use template tags to customize your listings page)
Your directory listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as shown below …
(Directory listings with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with editing code or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.
A useful shortcode variation you can insert in 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=”Asia Pacific Region”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options in the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options screen)
This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members data by going to your menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need any help with this plugin, go to the plugin website and contact the plugin developer.
Other Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create an employee directory in WordPress. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory 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, schools, etc.
You can also create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory 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 installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Go here to learn more:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic 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 read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
Learn more about the plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight includes 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 staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Staffer
(Staffer)
This 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 online employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: 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 List
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has helped you learn how to add a simple and easy-to-manage employee directory to WordPress.
Images of models used to portray staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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