Tag: Staff Plugin WordPress

Consumer buying habits show that people generally buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to engage more on your site, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know your business better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your website can help to generate greater trust, boost your credibility online and get interested prospects considering using your services.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily add an easy-to-maintain list directory of employees or team members to WordPress.

Adding A Staff 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 WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you display information about your staff on your website.

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

Log into your administration and in your admin menu section, select 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 search results area.

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new entry will appear in the WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

Here is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can just start to add new staff entries at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualgroup members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your directory groups. In your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings area …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Configuring directory groups is very similar to working with WordPress categories …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in the category description here
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create the new group …

(Groups screen)

If you manage a medium to large organization, the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after entering each item …

To change Groups for individual items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected category will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To edit the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

Continue adding groups to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your WordPress admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Permalink: Edit the slug associated with each staff member if you want (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The staff member’s role
• Email: Enter the person’s email here
• Phone Number: Type in your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the staff member’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in your company’s Twitter username into this field (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign your employee to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your employee’s details …

(Add Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group)

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 directory category and click on Add New Group …

Your new group will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign your listing to the group …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or modified. 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 typing in your employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can make changes to the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the WordPress admin toolbar , go here:

• The WP Administration Area – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

Note: If you have set up groups and get errors like the one shown below, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:

• Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks

Continue adding new entries to your staff or member directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering employee or faculty members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the employees and all details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details)

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

Click on Edit to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from your employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Editing Staff Members info)

If you have many names to add, your table can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its new location …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to a new position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your staff details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin lets you create the style and layout of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the layout and style of your employee directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your staff listings will now appear with Facebook and Twitter links as shown in the screenshot below …

(Staff profiles with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with code 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 staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

A useful shortcode variation you can decide to use, for example, to display a list of staff members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

Here you can modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export menu …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need help with the plugin, visit the plugin support page and contact the plugin author.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your team members in WordPress. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.

You can also create custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides 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 a profile in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

With Company Directory, you can add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone, image and staff 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 source: plugin website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just an individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus 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: plugin website)

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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 Directory Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple faculty members directory in in WordPress.

Images of models used to display fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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