Something often said in marketing, is that people will buy from those they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online or get people to interact more on your site, then make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your business better.
If your online business is built with the WordPress CMS platform, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to use a WordPress directory plugin that will let you display a directory listing with information about your partners, your business team, or your staff.
In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple faculty members directory to a WordPress site using free WordPress plugins.
How To Add A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily display basic information about your employee on your site.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your WP admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new entry will appear in the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start adding new staff member details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your categories go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This loads the Groups area …
(Groups settings screen)
Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Create new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section to set up nested groups
- Description – Enter the category description in this field (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new category …
(Groups area)
If you work with a larger organization, the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To change or reassign Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
Your selected item will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
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: Add the employee’s name
- Permalink: You can edit the slug associated with your employee if required (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the employee’s role into this field
- Email: Type the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add 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 member here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign your employee to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options)
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 the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will display allowing you to enter 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 …
A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to employee details. To edit a group item, 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 or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your staff directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have finished entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the listing entries and their details …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to change individual entries, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to modify the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from the staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members profile info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate items if required …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
You can specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(Screen Options)
Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it 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
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that entries display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its new location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding members’ details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that entries display on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to a desired location …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you create the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your employee directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in the directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the example below …
(Use template tags to customize your directory page)
Here is what your staff list should now look like …
(Directory listings with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with editing code 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 lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode screen)
This screen displays all the shortcode variations that the plugin lets you use.
A useful variation you can insert in your page, for example, 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 make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options in your menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export screen …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List site and request help from the plugin author.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your team members in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can use for creating a directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
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)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin also lets you set up custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Learn more here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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 a profile in a widget area.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, image 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: plugin 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.
With Employee Spotlight, you also get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen in 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 circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
Go here to learn more about the 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 onsite employee directory …
(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.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
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
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff members in WordPress.
Images of models used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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