Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

It’s often said in marketing that people will mostly buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory of staff to your website can help increase your credibility online and get more prospects considering using your services.

In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily create and add an updatable directory of employees in your site using a free WP plugin.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List lets you easily employee.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your 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 …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will appear in the main WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can just begin to add new entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Setting up groups is similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your group. 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 nested categories
4. Description – Type in the group description in this field
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up your new directory group …

(Groups settings screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, project teams, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

To edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The group details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group when done …

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

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member area)

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: Change your staff members’ slug (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: Add the person’s role
• Email: Type in the person’s email here
• Phone Number: Add your employee’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Add the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter your employee’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 employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign a staff or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …

(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 staff member’s details …

(Add New Staff Member fields)

Once you are done entering each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups section located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field for entering a group name will appear, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …

Your new group will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’s details. 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 typing in your team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

To edit your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Using The WP Admin Section

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

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

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

• Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding more members to your employee directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you are done entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list displaying all the employees and their details …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to edit individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members info)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate items if required …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(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 choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your employee profiles display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your member details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order that your staff entries display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to the desired position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is the Default Template …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop 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 include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the example below …

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

Your employee entries will now display as as the example below shows …

(Directory with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

A useful variation you can select, 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=”sales trainers”])

You can also 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 Menu – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

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

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin site and contact the plugin author.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your staff. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can look at for creating a staff 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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

This plugin also lets you create custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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 profiles in a widget area.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, photo and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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.

Employee Spotlight comes 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 faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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 a staff directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer

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

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

Models used to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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