Tag: Staff Plugin WordPress

No doubt you’ve already heard that people will buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for visitors to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If your site runs on 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 staff members using a staff list plugin.

This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to your web site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you staff (you could also use it to display faculty, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into the WordPress admin and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will appear in your WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can start to add new employee details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This opens up the Groups screen in your web browser …

(Groups settings)

Note: Configuring groups works just like categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Add a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter the group description (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up the new directory category …

(Groups area)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for partners, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you want 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 each new item …

To edit or reassign Groups for individual items, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected group open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose Quick Edit …

Click Update Group when done …

Add as many group names 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 are done setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings area)

This screen provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member details and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your staff member’s name
• Permalink: You can edit each staff members’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Add the staff member’s role
• Email: Your staff member’s email
• Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter the employee’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign your staff member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …

(Add New Staff Member fields)

Once you have finished inputting your staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for creating a new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

A new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign a staff member to the group …

(New group added)

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 staff or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To modify your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• An Overview Of Your WordPress Control Page

Note: If you have set up groups and get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding more entries to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table with all the staff members and their details …

(Staff Members list)

If you need to change an individual’s entry, simply hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their 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 clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find entries if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search box)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that entries appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its new location …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

After adding all members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order that your employees show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to a new position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you create the layout and style of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the layout and style of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Templates page)

To customize your directory listings, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

The The code shown above displays your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields show in the directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your directory page)

Here is what your staff list should now look like …

(Staff profiles with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with CSS code and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that you can use with the plugin.

For example, a useful variation you can insert in your page to display a list of individuals belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”property managers”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)

This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export section …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need any help with this plugin, go to the Simple Staff List plugin site and contact the plugin author.

Other Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can look at to add an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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 this plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Staff Directory lets you easily display a list of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.

You can also use custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

Faculty And Staff Directory provides 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.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing you to present 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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 website)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Staffer 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 online employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

For more details go here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update staff directory in your web site.

Images used to portray sample staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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