Consumer behavior studies show that people generally buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for simple ways to grow your business online, then make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust your business better.
If you are a WordPress user, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to use a WordPress staff list plugin that lets you add a directory containing information about your key people, your faculty, or your staff.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff members to your site with no coding skills required.
How To Add A Staff List Directory: Plugin Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you staff (you could also use it to display board of directors, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate this plugin.
Log into your dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will appear in the main WP admin menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
Here is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just begin adding new entries at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings up the Groups settings area …
(Groups settings)
Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version 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 – Enter your category description
- Click Add New Group when done to set up a new group name …
(Groups settings area)
If you are a business that employs many people, being able to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, developers, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To change Groups for a particular entry, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The category will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update to save your changes …
To edit the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group when done to save your changes …
Continue adding groups to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
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: Edit your staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the person’s role
- Email: Add the person’s email address here
- Phone Number: Enter the person’s phone number here
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the person’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. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options)
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 each of your staff member’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you have finished entering details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups section located in your sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field for entering your new group name will display, with a drop-down menu to 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. Remember to tick the check box to assign your list entry to the group …
(New group added in Groups section)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can edit the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar here:
Note: If you have set up groups and get errors like the one shown below, check that your permalinks have been set up correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this tutorial:
Repeat the above process to continue adding more details to your staff or faculty directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory entries and any details you have added for each entry …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to make changes to individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members details)
If you have many entries, your table can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details if necessary …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options)
Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that your employee listings display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which entries show on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to a desired location …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered listings)
After adding your staff details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List lets you customize the style and layout of your staff 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 the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, 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 directory listings …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are 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 …
(Use template tags to customize your listings page)
Your employee profiles will now display as as the example below shows …
(Employee profiles with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main menu, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.
For example, a useful variation you can choose to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Choose Staff Members >Options on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Options settings)
Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your dashboard menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin support, visit the plugin faq page.
Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your faculty. Here are a few other plugins you can use:
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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
This plugin also lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
Learn more here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin 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.
Learn more here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and table views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone number, photo and bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.
Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.
Detailed information about each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
For more details go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Plugin)
The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for employee 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 source: Staffer 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 above plugins 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 List
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple staff directory to your WordPress site without messing with code, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Images of persons used to depict 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