No doubt you’ve heard that people will buy from those they know, like and trust.
Are you looking for ideas to sell more products online? Then help your visitors get to know your business better.
If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that lets you display information about your partners, your faculty, or your staff members.
This tutorial explains how to create a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your website.
How To Easily Add An Employee Directory In WordPress: Step-By-Step Tutorial
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 WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List lets you display information about your staff members on your website.
First, let’s install and activate this plugin.
Log into the WordPress admin and from the admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …
(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 the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will display on your main WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could begin adding new staff members at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your directory categories. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups settings panel …
(Groups screen)
Note: Configuring directory groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version 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 nested groups
- Description – Type in your category description here
- Click Add New Group when done to set up a new group …
(Groups settings)
If you are a medium to large organization, being able to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, 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 build a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To change or reassign Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected item open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent 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 click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you are done setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …
(Add New Staff Member area)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Permalink: Change the slug associated with each employee if you want (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: The employee’s role
- Email: The employee’s email
- Phone Number: Add your employee’s phone number into this field
- Facebook URL: Type your staff member’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the person’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 a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the individual 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 …
(Screen options)
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 …
(Add Staff Member fields)
Once you have entered details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new group will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign your list item to the group …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when a staff member’s details are being added or modified. To edit an 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 team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …
Click View Post …
To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If a page error like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have configured your site permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:
Keep adding more members to your directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to change an individual’s details, just hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to update their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members profile information)
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 items if required …
(Search members)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which your staff profiles display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding all staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which listings show on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list)
After adding your staff details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List 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 layout and style of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(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 …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To make these fields show up in the directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the example below …
(Use template tags to customize your listings page)
Your directory details will now display as as the screenshot below shows …
(Employee profiles with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with CSS styles and template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage Shortcode screen)
This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful variation you can add, 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=”Asia Pacific Region”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)
Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members info by going to your main admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin faq page.
Other Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to build a staff directory in WordPress. Here are a few other plugins you can use:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
You can also create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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 profiles in a widget area.
Go here to learn more:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
This plugin lets you add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, image 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 staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just one single member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, 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 sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
The Staffer 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 onsite employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
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
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update simple faculty directory to a WordPress site without using code.
Images of models used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum