No doubt you’ve already heard that people generally buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online and get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.
Adding a directory of employees to your website is a great way to humanize your organization.
This tutorial explains how to create and add an easy-to-update employee directory to your WordPress site.
Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily display information to visitors about your employee on your site.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your WordPress dashboard and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, a new menu will be added to the WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
All of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
How To Configure The Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin to add new staff member details at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your categories. From your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings up the Groups section …
(Groups section)
Note: Setting up groups is similar to creating WordPress categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Add new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group name
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in a category description in this field (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new directory category …
(Groups settings screen)
If you run 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, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To edit or reassign Groups for an individual item, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …
The category will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button to save your changes …
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 …
(Nested groups)
Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WordPress admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This page provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter the staff member’s name
- Permalink: You can change the slug for your staff member if required (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in the person’s role
- Email: Add your staff member’s email here
- Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add your employee’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type the employee’s Twitter username into this field (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. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign your staff member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
If you 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 fields)
Once you have entered details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group)
A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown 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 added. Remember to tick the check box to assign your listing to the group …
(New group)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. 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 staff or team member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can make changes to your employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
If you need help using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have set up your site permalinks correctly …
(Not found error – Check your permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here:
Repeat the above process to add more members to your employee directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the staff profiles and the details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to edit individual details, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to update their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Editing Staff Members profile information)
If you have many entries, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate items …
(Search Staff Members search box)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which entries show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
After adding your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your employee listings show on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you create the layout and style of your employee directory entries 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 screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Plugin 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 make these fields show in the directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the screenshot 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)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with 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 allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.
A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”technical engineers”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on the menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
This section lets you edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to your WP admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List support page.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your employees in WordPress. Here are other plugins you can use:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
This 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 – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
You can also use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP 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.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one single member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer)
Staffer 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 employee directory on your website …
(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.
More info:
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 List
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so your web visitors can get to know you and the people in your organization better.
Images used in this tutorial to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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