Consumer buying habits show that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you and your business better.
Adding a faculty member directory to your website will help let visitors learn more about the people working behind the scenes in your organization.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to add a simple and easy-to-update directory of employees to your website.
Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you staff (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into the admin and in your admin menu section, select Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress 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 …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu entry will appear on your main WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
All of the settings and options for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin adding new staff entries at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place yourmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups settings screen …
(Groups area)
Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Create a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter your category description in this field (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new directory group …
(Groups settings area)
If you work with a medium to large organization, the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested groups as you need 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 creating each item …
To change Groups for specific items, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The item’s details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update to save your changes …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested groups to your staff directory)
Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen in your web browser …
(Add New Staff Member screen)
This area provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The staff member’s name
- Permalink: Change your employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the person’s position
- Email: The employee’s email address
- Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook URL into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add the person’s Twitter username (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 employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
After you are done entering each of you staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you did not set up directory groups before adding new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group)
A field will display 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 …
The new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …
(Groups section)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit an 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 filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can make changes to the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have configured your permalinks correctly …
(Page error – Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Continue adding more details to your directory directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have finished entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the staff members and details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to change an individual’s entry, hover your mouse over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from your staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Editing Staff Members profile details)
If you have many employees, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find entries if required …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your staff members display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its desired position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding member details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which your employee profiles display on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to the desired location …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding all member details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you edit the layout and style of your staff directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize 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 displays your directory 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, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your directory profiles will now display as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory listings with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for help.
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 main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that you can use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can select to display a list of staff or team members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales trainers”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Options screen)
This section lets you edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export menu …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List site.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your team members in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can look at for adding an employee directory on your site:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
Faculty And Staff Directory was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
For more details go here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone, pic and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to learn 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 this plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just one individual 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, 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 circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
The Staffer plugin 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 onsite staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works immediately 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 above plugins 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
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update list of staff members to your website using a free WordPress plugin.
Images of models used in this tutorial to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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