Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

No doubt you already know that people generally buy from those they already know, like and trust.

If you are searching for ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory to your site can help increase your online credibility and get more prospects buying from your site.

This tutorial explains how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of employees in your web site.

Adding An Employee Directory To Your Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

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

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu entry will show up in your main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could just start adding new entries at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings you to the Groups settings panel …

(Groups screen)

Note: Adding groups is very similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your group name. 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 Add New Group when done to create a new directory category …

(Groups screen)

If you run a larger organization, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for partners, project teams, departments, etc.

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

(Nested groups)

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

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

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

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member area …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Enter the employee’s name
• Slug: Change each employees’ slug (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The staff member’s position
• Email: Type your staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• 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 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: Type in a profile description for your staff member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up 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 employee’s details …

(Staff directory fields)

After you have finished entering details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups section located in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field for entering a group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

The new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign a staff member to the group …

(New group added)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to someone’s 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 typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• How To Navigate Inside Your WP Dashboard

Note: If you get a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have set up your site permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get errors)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs

Keep adding more details to your staff directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list of all the listing entries and their details …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to make changes to individual details, hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to make changes to their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile info)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate entries if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search box)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(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 shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which your employees appear on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its new position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List allows you to create the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, below is the Default Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The The code shown above will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your directory page)

Here is what your directory will now look like …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that you can use.

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

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

Options Menu

In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)

Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members details by going to the main admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin site and request help from the plugin developer.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to build an employee directory in WordPress. Here are some other plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Staff Directory lets you easily display a list of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.

You can also add custom fields …

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

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This 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 a profile in a widget area.

For more details go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, plus as fields like job title, email, phone, pic and 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 employee in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

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

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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 Staffer 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 about this plugin:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory 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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple employee directory to your WordPress site, so your site visitors can get to know you and your business better.

Images of models used to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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