Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people often tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.
If your website is driven by the WordPress CMS platform, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that lets you add a directory containing information about your key people, your faculty, or your employees.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily add an updatable simple faculty directory in your WordPress site without editing code.
How To Add A Staff List Directory
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 Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List lets you easily create a basic staff directory list for.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into your WordPress administration and go to Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress 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 the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new menu entry will be added to the main WP menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your group members.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your groups. In your WP dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This opens up the Groups screen …
(Groups screen)
Note: Adding groups works just like categories …
(Groups work just like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in the category description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new directory group …
(Groups area)
If you manage a larger organization, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for founders, project teams, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups 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 the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To change or reassign Groups for an item, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The category details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To change 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 groups as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your staff directory)
Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
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 staff member’s name
- Permalink: Edit each staff members’ slug (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in your staff member’s role
- Email: Your staff member’s email address
- Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the staff member’s Facebook address into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your company’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your staff member here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section 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 …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you are done inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you did not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for creating a group name will appear, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
Your new category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing someone’s details. 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 …
Click View Post …
To update your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If you see a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …
(Not found error – Check your permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees into 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 your directory entries and any details you have added for each entry …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to change individual details, simply hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to make changes to the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members details)
If you have many individual listings added to this section, your table can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate member details if required …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that entries appear on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to its desired position …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which entries show on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to a desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added staff details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you customize the layout and style of your directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Template)
The The code shown above displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin 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] tags to the template, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your staff entries will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as as shown below …
(Employee profiles with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations you can use.
For example, a useful variation you can add to your page to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Gold Level associates”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members data by going to the WordPress admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need help with this plugin, visit the plugin plugin website and request help from the plugin developer.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. Here are a few other free plugins you can use:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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)
Learn more here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
The plugin lets you add custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)
Go here to learn more:
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 a profile in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With Company Directory, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email, phone, image 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 learn more about each employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just an individual member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
With this plugin, you also get 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 faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This 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 source: plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an updatable simple faculty members directory to your WordPress site using a free plugin.
Models used to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group