Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

No doubt you already know that people tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cheaper ways to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If you own a WordPress website, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to use a staff list plugin that lets you display information about your key partners, your team, or your staff.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of staff or team members in your WordPress site with no coding skills required.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WP dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new entry will appear on the WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could just start adding new employee details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourmembers into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory categories. In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups section …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Setting up directory groups is very similar to working with categories …

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in a category description here (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new category …

(Groups settings)

If you work with a medium to large organization, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

To change Groups for an item, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected group open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click on Update Group  when done …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can start to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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 employee’s name
• Slug: Here you can edit each employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Enter the person’s role here
• Email: Add your employee’s email here
• Phone Number: Type in the person’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in 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 in a profile description for your staff members here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a group (see the previous section 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 each of your staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member fields)

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

(Groups section)

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

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …

The new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing someone’s details. 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 team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial on using the WordPress admin toolbar here:

• How To Navigate Inside The WP Control Area

Note: If errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have configured your site permalinks correctly …

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here:

• Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks

Keep adding more members to your staff directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering staff or faculty members into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory entries and their details …

(Staff Members table)

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

Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from your 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 become unwieldy.

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

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options)

Selecting a 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 done to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which your staff members show on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – 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 Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code displays your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above example. To display these fields, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

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 template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

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

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need help with the plugin, go to the Simple Staff List site and request help from the plugin author.

Other Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are other free plugins you can check out to add a directory on your site:

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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, schools, etc.

You can also set up custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

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

Detailed information about  each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 employee directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-manage simple faculty directory in your web site.

Models used to display staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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