Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

Something that is often quoted in business and marketing, is that people generally will buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory of staff or team members to your website is a great way to personalize your organization.

This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to your web site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily create a basic staff directory for.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WP admin and from the admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will have been added to your main WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

Here is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin adding new employee details at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your groups. In your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups section …

(Groups section)

Note: Adding groups works in the same way as adding categories in WordPress …

(Groups are like categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter a group description here
5. Click Add New Group when done to set up a new group …

(Groups settings area)

If you are a larger organization, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating new items …

To edit Groups for individual entries, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The item will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click on Update Group  to save your changes …

Continue adding categories in this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your staff member’s name
• Permalink: You can change the permalink URL for each employee if you want (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in the employee’s role
• Email: The staff member’s email
• Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address into this field (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: Add a profile description for your staff or faculty member here. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign a staff or faculty member to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …

(Add Staff Member settings)

After you have entered details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up your directory groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group)

A field for entering your new group name will display, 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 directory category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person’s listing to the group …

(New group added via Groups section)

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 above for details).

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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• The WP Dashboard – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

Note: If a page error shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …

(Page error – Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here:

• Changing Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new details to your staff or team directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the staff members and their details …

(Staff Members table)

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

Click on Edit to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members details)

If you have many names to add, your table can grow quite large.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate a member …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that entries appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its new location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding member details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that entries show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to a new location …

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

After adding all members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to edit 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 employee directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, here is the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Plugin Template)

The This code displays your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Directory listings with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory 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 being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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 choose, for example, to display a list of staff members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Options settings)

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 your WordPress admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List plugin website and request help from the plugin author.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your employees. Here are some other free plugins you can look at to add a directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin also lets you create custom fields …

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide 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 a profile in a widget area.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, pic and staff bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin uses shortcodes.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin 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 source: plugin website)

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

More info:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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