Tag: Staff List

It’s often said in business circles that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for ways to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your business 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 business team, or your staff 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 staff directory in your site using free WordPress plugins.

Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory In WordPress

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you employee (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WP admin and go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu entry will be added to the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

The Staff Members menu is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

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

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your directory categories. From your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups settings …

(Groups settings)

Note: Configuring groups is just like configuring categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group category name here
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up nested groups
4. Description – Enter the group description in this field (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when done to create the new category …

(Groups area)

If you are a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

To edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected group details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group after making changes …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Permalink: Edit the permalink URL associated with your employee if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type your staff member’s position
• Email: Add your employee’s email address
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in the employee’s Twitter username here (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 employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or team member to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your 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 your staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member fields)

After you have entered each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

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

(Groups > + Add New Group feature)

A field for creating your new group name will appear, 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 directory category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign an individual to the group …

(Groups box)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).

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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Navigate Around Your WP Control Area

Note: If you see errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

If you need help setting up permalinks, go here:

• Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks

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

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have finished entering employee or faculty members into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the employees and their details …

(Staff Members list)

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

Click on Edit to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

If you have many employees, your table can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find listing items …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to 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 …

(Screen Options)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

After adding your member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order that listings display on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding all staff details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List allows you to edit 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 menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …

(Default Plugin Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields show up in the directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the screenshot below …

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Your staff profiles will now display as as shown below …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations you can use.

A useful variation you can choose, for example, to display a list of employees belonging only to 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 adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)

This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to your menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

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

Additional Staff Directory Plugins

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

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

The Modern Team Staff Directory 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 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 churches, teams, etc.

You can also add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone, image 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders 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.

Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, 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 sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

Learn more here:

• Staffer – WordPress 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 Directory Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update directory of staff or faculty members in your web site using a free WordPress plugin.

Images of persons used to depict staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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