Consumer behaviour studies show that people generally tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.
Adding a directory of staff to your website can help increase your credibility online and get interested prospects contacting you.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily create and add an updatable list directory of staff members in your WordPress site using free WordPress plugins.
Adding A Staff Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List lets you easily display basic information to visitors about your staff members on your website.
First, let’s install and activate this plugin.
Log into your WP administration and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(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 …
(Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, a new menu will show up in your main WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could start adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff into.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups panel …
(Groups screen)
Note: Configuring directory groups works just like categories …
(Groups work like categories)
Create new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group name
- Slug – Enter the slug 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 a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in a group description (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create the new group name …
(Groups area)
If you are a medium to large organization, being able to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many groups and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering each item …
To edit Groups for a specific item, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected category details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member settings screen …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This area provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s position
- Email: Type in the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Add the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the person’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the person to a specific group (see above 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 features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Add New Staff Member fields)
After you are done inputting your staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
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 …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will appear allowing you to create a new group name, with a drop-down menu to 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 …
Your new category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when a staff member’s details are being added or modified. To edit a group entry, 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 update your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up WP permalinks, go here:
Keep adding new entries to your employee directory directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you have added staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to change an individual’s entry, hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Editing Staff Members profile info)
If you have many entries, your list can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to find a member if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(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 finished to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which entries display on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to the desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to a new position …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List lets you edit the layout and style of your staff list items 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 menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowable template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Plugin Template)
The The code shown above displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To make these fields show up in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your directory page)
Your directory profiles will now display as shown in the example below …
(Employee profiles with social media URLs added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.
A useful variation you can decide to use, 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 adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Options settings)
Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export menu …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the Simple Staff List website and request help from the plugin author.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to build a staff directory in WordPress. For example, here are other free plugins you can use:
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 Plugin)
With Staff Directory, you can easily display a list of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
You can also create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.
The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, image 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 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 also uses shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one single person in a four-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 which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each team member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer)
This 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 sourced from Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Learn more about the plugin here:
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
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff members in your WordPress site using free WordPress plugins.
Images used to portray staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum