Many business and marketing experts have successfully shown that people will buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you looking for simple ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors get to know you and your business better.
Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your website can help personalize your business.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily create and add an updatable directory of employees to your WordPress site without editing code.
How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory: Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you easily create a basic staff directory for.
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress 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 the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu entry will appear on the WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
Here is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin adding new staff member details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign youremployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your categories. In your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups settings panel …
(Groups settings area)
Note: Configuring groups is just like configuring categories in WordPress …
(Groups work just like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Type in the slug of your category. 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 your group description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new directory category …
(Groups settings screen)
If you manage a medium to large organization, being able to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for founders, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To edit Groups for individual items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The category details will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button to save your changes …
Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested categories your staff directory)
Once you are done setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This loads the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This area provides you with 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: Change the slug associated with each staff member if you want (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your employee’s role
- Email: Enter the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Type the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add your employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type 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: Enter a profile description for your staff or team member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign a staff or team member to a specific 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 tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
Once you have entered each staff member’s 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 categories before adding new staff members, you can add a new group by selecting 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 drop-down 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 directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(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 of the tutorial above for details).
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After entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To edit your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
If you need help using the admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If you get an error like the one shown below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here:
Keep adding more entries to your employee directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done adding staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list with all your directory entries and their details …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to change an individual’s details, hover your mouse over their list name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to make changes to their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from the employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members profile)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find a member if required …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which entries appear on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding all members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which your employees show on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to the new position …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list)
After adding your member details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to 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 staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To make these fields show up in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown below …
(Use template tags to customize your listings page)
Here is what your listings page should now look like …
(Staff profiles with social media URLs added)
Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.
A useful shortcode variation you can select, 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=”sales trainers”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options in the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export section …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need additional information about this plugin, visit the plugin plugin website and contact the plugin author.
Other Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. 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)
Modern Team Staff Directory 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 the plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
You can also set up custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin was developed to provide 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.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, plus as fields like title, email, phone, image and bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.
Visitors will be able to 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 source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and 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 circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin uses custom post types for staff/employee 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: plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
If the directory plugins listed above 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 List
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has shown you how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of staff in WordPress.
Images used to depict sample staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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