No doubt you’ve already heard that people often tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.
Adding a directory of staff to your website can help boost your online credibility and get more prospects to request quotes or more information.
In this tutorial, we explain how to create and add a simple faculty members directory in your web site using a free WordPress plugin.
Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List lets you easily build a basic staff directory list for.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your admin and go to Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will be added to your WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin adding new employee details at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your members.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This loads the Groups settings area …
(Groups screen)
Note: Setting up groups is very similar to working with WordPress categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Add new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested groups
- Description – Type in your category description
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up your new category …
(Groups settings screen)
If you work with a medium to large organization, the ability to assign people to 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 organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after entering each new item …
To edit Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
Your selected category will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding categories in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested categories)
Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to begin adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter the staff member’s name
- Permalink: Here you can change each staff members’ slug (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s role
- Email: Add the person’s email here
- Phone Number: Add your staff member’s phone number into this field
- Facebook URL: Type in your employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter 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: Type a profile description for your staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign an employee or team member to a group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You will see options to enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
Once you have finished inputting details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you did not set up groups before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
The new group will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign the employee’s details to the group …
(New group added)
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 above for details).
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After typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …
Click View Post …
To modify 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 , go here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your permalinks have been configured correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here:
Repeat the above process to add more details to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table with all the directory entries and their details …
(Staff Members list)
If you need to edit individual entries, hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you want to modify the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove an entry from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate member details if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search box)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Placing a tick in the item’s check box 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 done to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which your employee profiles display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in your main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that entries 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 …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin allows you to customize 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 WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To display these fields, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of 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 allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to display a list of persons belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members info by going to the main admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List website and request help from the plugin developer.
Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your faculty members. For example, here are a few other free plugins you can check out:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Modern Team Staff Directory 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)
More info:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With Staff Directory, you can easily display a list of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
The plugin also lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
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)
With Company Directory, you can add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone, pic and 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 sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin uses shortcodes.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one single 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 pluginincludes two sidebar widgets which 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 plugin website)
Learn more here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
This 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 employee directory on your site …
(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.
Go here to learn more:
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
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable list of employees to in WordPress without coding skills.
Images of persons used in this tutorial to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com