Tag: Staff List

It’s often said in marketing that people generally tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.

If you have a WordPress website, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to add a directory plugin that will let you add information about your key partners, your business team, or your employees.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily add a list of staff members to your website using free plugins.

Adding An Employee Directory: Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you display information to visitors about your employee on your site.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(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 …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu will appear in the main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

Here is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign youremployees into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups section …

(Groups section)

Note: Adding directory groups works just like categories in WordPress …

(Groups work just like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group category name here
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group. 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 groups
4. Description – Enter the group description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up your new directory category …

(Groups settings)

If you manage a business that employs many people, the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for founders, developers, departments, etc.

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

(Nested categories)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …

To change Groups for specific entries, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The group will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …

Click the Update Group button after making changes …

Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the staff member’s name
• Slug: Change the slug for your employee if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type your staff member’s position
• Email: Add the person’s email address
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your company’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 employees here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory fields)

Once you are done entering each staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you did not set up directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

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

Your new category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

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 of the tutorial above for details).

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After entering your employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the staff directory …

Click View Post …

You can update the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

If you need help using the admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Understanding Your WP Dashboard

Note: If you see ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have set up your site permalinks correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:

• How To Set Up WordPress Permalinks

Keep adding new details to your staff or member directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to change an individual’s entry, hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members info)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find items …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox 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 screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings display on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the new position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added all of your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order that your employees display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the main menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to a new position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin lets you create the layout and style of your directory items 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 main menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Templates page)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)

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

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

Your directory profiles will now display as shown in the example below …

(Directory listings with social media URLs added)

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 assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your dashboard menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations you can 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=”property managers”])

Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Options settings screen)

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

You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export screen …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin support, go to the plugin plugin website and contact the plugin author.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. Here are a few other plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP 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 about this plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

The plugin lets you add custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin 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 a profile in a widget area.

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo and staff bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get 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 staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

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

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WP 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 online employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-maintain list directory of staff members in your site.

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

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