Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people will buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker and easier ideas 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 visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.
If your website is driven by the WordPress Content Management System, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your team, or your employees using a directory plugin.
In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add a list of employees in WordPress without coding skills.
Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily staff.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into the dashboard and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, a new menu will appear in your 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 from this menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin to add new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your directory groups. From your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This takes you to the Groups screen …
(Groups settings)
Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as configuring categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group name here
- Slug – Enter the slug of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested groups
- Description – Type in your category description here (optional)
- Click Add New Group when done to create a new directory category …
(Groups settings screen)
If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, 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 entering new items …
To edit or reassign Groups for a specific item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected item’s details will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category 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 choose Quick Edit …
Click Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding categories to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
After you are done setting up your directory structure, the next step is to start adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …
(Add New Staff Member area)
This area 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: Your staff member’s name
- Permalink: You can change your employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in the staff member’s role into this field
- Email: Type the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in your company’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employee here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML 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 groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
You will see options to enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
After you have finished entering details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box in the 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 clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for entering a group name will appear, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
Your new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign an individual to the group …
(Groups box)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’s details. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After filling in your team member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To modify the staff member’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have configured your site permalinks correctly …
(Not found error – Check your permalinks)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up permalinks, go here:
Repeat the above process to add more entries to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and the details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to edit individual details, hover over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to make changes to their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members info)
If you have many items added to this section, your table can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find a member …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to 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 listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which listings display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on your main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new position …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which listings display on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to a new location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you are done adding employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List also lets you edit the style and layout of your directory items 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 page …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To display these fields, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template, as shown in the example below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Here is what your listings page should now look like …
(Staff profiles with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with CSS styles and template tags 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 lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can insert in 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=”senior staff”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options on your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Options screen)
This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details by going to the dashboard menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin website.
Other Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can use for creating a directory on your website:
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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin lets you easily create a directory of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
This plugin also lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.
The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
For more details go here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, pic 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 learn more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
Learn more here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just a single person in a four-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, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.
Detailed information about each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Plugin)
This 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 employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more:
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 Directory Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple and easy-to-update list of employees to in WordPress using a free plugin.
Models used to portray fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now