Tag: Staff Directory WordPress Plugin

Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

If your website uses the WordPress CMS platform, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your faculty, or your employees using a staff list plugin.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to create and add an easy-to-update simple team members directory in your website using a free WordPress plugin.

Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Add An Employee 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)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you staff members.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WordPress admin and from the admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring 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 notice that new entry will appear on the main WP admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can just begin adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your categories. From your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This opens up the Groups settings area …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Configuring directory groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. 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.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter the group description here
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create the new directory category …

(Groups area)

If you are a medium to large organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups 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 the Add New Group button after entering new items …

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

The item’s details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click on Update Group  to save your 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 …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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: The employee’s name
• Slug: Change the slug associated with your employee if required (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your staff member’s role
• Email: The employee’s email address
• Phone Number: Type your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook URL (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 a profile description for your staff members here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can format content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the individual to a specific 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)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …

(Add Staff Member settings)

After you have finished entering details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …

Your new group will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …

(New group added via Groups section)

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

Click View Post …

To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

For a detailed tutorial on using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:

• Understanding The WordPress Control Page

Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have correctly set up your site permalinks …

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

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial:

• Changing WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new details to your staff directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee details into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the directory entries and details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details)

If you need to edit an individual’s entry, hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Editing Staff Members info)

If you have many employees added to this section, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select 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 lets you set the order in which your employee profiles appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added all of your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which listings show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you create the layout and style of your staff directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, here is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Plugin Template)

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

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Here is what your directory will now look like …

(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 not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

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 main menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode section)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can decide to use to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

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

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options in the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

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

Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to create a directory of your staff in WordPress. For example, here are other plugins you can use for adding a 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)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

The plugin lets you use custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)

Go here to learn more:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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 a profile in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic and staff 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details go here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

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 online employee directory …

(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.

More info:

• Staffer – WP Plugin

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

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an updatable list directory of employees to your site.

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

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