Tag: Staff List

Something that is often quoted in business and marketing, is that people generally will buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer 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.

If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your faculty, or your staff using a staff list plugin.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we explain how to create and add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to a WordPress site using a free WP plugin.

Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

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

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you build a basic staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your dashboard and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will be added to your main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just begin to add new employee entries at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual members.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups screen in your web browser …

(Groups section)

Note: Setting up groups is just like setting up WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group category name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter a group description here (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new directory category …

(Groups screen)

If you manage a larger organization, being able to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, faculties, 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 hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …

To change or reassign Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group to save your changes …

Continue adding group names to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

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, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the staff member’s name
• Permalink: You can edit the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (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: Add the person’s role
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter the employee’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 staff member here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign your employee to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your 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 each of your staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member fields)

Once you have entered details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you 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. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group added)

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

***

After typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …

Click View Post …

You can modify your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

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

• An Overview Of The WP Administration Screen

Note: If a ‘page not found’ error shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new entries to your staff or team directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details list)

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

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

(Editing Staff Members details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate a member if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search box)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

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

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that entries appear on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your main menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its desired position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which your employees appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to customize the style and layout of your 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 Menu – Templates)

This opens 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 template used for displaying listings …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your directory entries will now display Facebook and Twitter links as as the screenshot below shows …

(Staff profiles with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with editing code or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

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

In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

A useful variation you can select, for example, to display a list of staff or faculty members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

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

Options Menu

In your main menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

You can also export your staff members data by going to the main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin website.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your employees. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin lets you use custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin 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.

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, image and member 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 employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just an individual person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes 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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

Staffer 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.

Learn more here:

• Staffer

If the directory plugins listed above 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 List
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update directory of staff to WordPress.

Images of models used in this tutorial to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

***