Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people will mostly buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help your prospects get to know you and your organization better.

Adding a faculty directory to your website can generate greater trust, boost your online credibility and get interested prospects to buy from your site.

This step-by-step tutorial explains how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update staff directory to your web site.

How To Easily Add A Staff Directory In WordPress: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

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

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display faculty, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WP admin and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, a new entry will display on the main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could begin to add new staff entries at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff members.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Configuring directory groups is similar to creating categories in WordPress …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category. 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 groups
4. Description – Enter your group description in this field (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new group …

(Groups screen)

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

Create as many categories and nested categories as you need 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 new items …

To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The item will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click Update Group when done …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Modify your staff members’ slug (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: Your employee’s role
• Email: Add the staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Add your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type your employee’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign a staff or faculty member to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member fields)

Once you have finished inputting each staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature located in your sidebar …

(Groups section)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

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

The new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added via Groups section)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee 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 filling in your employee or team member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To edit the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

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

• Your WP Control Section Explained

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

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

To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding more entries to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details list)

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

Click on Edit if you want to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like 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 details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find listing items …

(Search Staff Members search field)

You can specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …

(Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your employees appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its new location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its new position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

After adding all employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to edit 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 directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above listing. To display these fields, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, 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 will now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

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

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

You can also export your staff members info by going to the menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the Simple Staff List plugin site.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only for displaying a directory of your team members in WordPress. For example, here are some other plugins you can check out:

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also create custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With Company Directory, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – WP Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

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

Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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)

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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 online staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

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

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple faculty directory in your website without messing with code.

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

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