Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people generally buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products online or increase user interaction on your site? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know your organization better.
Adding a directory to your site is a great way to let visitors learn more about the team working behind the scenes in your organization.
This tutorial shows you how to create a simple and easy-to-update employee directory in your site.
Step-By-Step Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you staff members (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your dashboard and navigate to 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 Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new entry will appear in your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
All of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just start adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s configure your categories. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups settings screen …
(Groups area)
Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories …
(Groups work just like categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group name here
- Slug – Type in 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 – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter the category description (optional)
- Click Add New Group when done to create the new group name …
(Groups settings)
If you are a larger organization, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, developers, departments, etc.
Create as many categories and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a directory hierarchy …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To edit or reassign Groups for a specific item, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
Your selected category open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button to save your changes …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click Update Group to save your changes …
Continue adding groups to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested categories)
Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WordPress admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This loads the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Permalink: Modify the slug associated with your staff member if required (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter your staff member’s role
- Email: Type your staff member’s email address here
- Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add the staff member’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 employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You will see options to enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
Once you have finished entering details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you did not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
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 group and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group added via Groups section)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To edit your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the dashboard admin toolbar here:
Note: If you get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Page error – Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Keep adding new entries to your staff directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees into 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 employees and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to make changes to individual details, hover your mouse over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to modify 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 directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Editing Staff Members profile info)
If you have many names added to this section, your list can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items if required …
(Search Staff Members search field)
You can specify which fields can 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)
Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that your employees show on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to the new location …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that entries show on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to a new location …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you customize the layout and style of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Plugin Template)
The This code will display your listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To make these fields display in your directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …
(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your directory page)
Your employee details will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as the screenshot below shows …
(Directory with social media URLs 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 how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations you can use with this plugin.
A useful variation you can insert in 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=”senior staff”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options in your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options screen)
This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to the WordPress admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin faq page.
Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your faculty members. Here are a few other plugins you can look at for creating an employee directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
This plugin lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Learn more here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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 installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Go here to learn more:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone number, photo and staff 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 source: Company Directory website)
This plugin uses simple shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners 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.
Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
The Staffer 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 staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)
Staffer works 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 Directory Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to your web site.
Images of persons used in this tutorial to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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