Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

Business experts have successfully demonstrated over the years that people will buy from those they already know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

If your online business is powered by the WordPress Content Management System, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your faculty, or your employees using a directory plugin.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily create and add an easy-to-manage list of employees in your WordPress site using a free plugin.

Plugin Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

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 lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your dashboard and in your admin menu section, select 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 search results area.

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

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

(Staff Members)

The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can start to add new entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups screen …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as configuring WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group name
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter your group description in this field
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new group name …

(Groups screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, developers, 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 on the Add New Group button after creating new items …

To edit Groups for an item, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

Your selected item will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and select Quick Edit …

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to begin to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member settings in your browser …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Permalink: Edit the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The employee’s role
• Email: Enter the person’s email address here
• Phone Number: Enter your staff member’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add the staff member’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff members 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 individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your staff member’s details …

(Staff directory fields)

Once you are done inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

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. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

A new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a list item to the group …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or modified. To edit an 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 filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

You can update your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• The WP Dashboard – An Overview

Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that your site permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:

• Changing WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add more members to your employee or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your employees and their details …

(Staff Members list)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details if necessary …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide specific fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed 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 allows you to set the order in which entries show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which your staff entries show on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to its desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to customize the layout and style of your staff directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Templates screen)

To customize your directory, insert any of the allowed 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 Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default 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 in the example below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your directory profiles will now display as as shown below …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that you can use.

A useful shortcode variation you can insert in your page, for example, to display a list of members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”senior staff”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

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

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin faq page and contact the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Modern Team Staff Directory 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

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.

The plugin lets you insert custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin provides 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.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo and staff 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 in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – WP 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 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

Staffer 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 website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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 Directory Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has explained how to create an easy-to-update staff directory in your WordPress site.

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

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