Many business experts often raise the point that people generally tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.
If you are searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services 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 your business better.
Adding a directory of staff to your website can help to generate greater trust, boost your online credibility and get interested prospects making enquiries.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to add a simple and easy-to-update list of employees in your site using free plugins.
Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a free WordPress plugin that lets you employee.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your dashboard and in your admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WP 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)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will appear in the WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can begin to add new staff members after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualgroup members into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your directory groups go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups settings …
(Groups settings area)
Note: Setting up groups is very similar to working with categories in WordPress …
(Groups are like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Enter the slug of your category. 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 nested groups
- Description – Type in the group description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up a new category …
(Groups section)
If you run a business that employs many people, having the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, 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 hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The group will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested categories)
Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member area …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This section provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter the employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify the permalink URL associated with each employee if you want (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the person’s role
- Email: The employee’s email
- Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter the employee’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 employee or faculty member here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign your staff member to a group (see above 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 features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your employee’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
After you have entered details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …
A new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group added)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a person’s 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 entering the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can make changes to your staff member’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If you get a page error like the one shown below, check that you have configured your permalinks correctly …
(Page error? Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your staff or partner directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done adding staff or faculty members into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to modify individual entries, just hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members info)
If you have many entries, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items if required …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings show on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
After adding your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which entries display on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered list items)
After adding your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you customize the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below 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 listing. To make these fields display in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee profiles will now display as as the screenshot below shows …
(Directory listings with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with CSS styles and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode screen)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that you can use with the plugin.
A useful shortcode variation you can add, 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=”sales reps”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Choose Staff Members >Options on your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details by going to the WordPress admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List site.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a directory of your faculty members in WordPress. Here are other plugins you can check out:
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
Staff Directory lets you easily display a list of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
You can also insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
For more details go here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo and member 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 employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
Go here to learn more:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus 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 source: plugin website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
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 online employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Learn more about this plugin 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 Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to your site without editing code.
Images used to depict staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)