Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

Consumer behavior studies show that people will buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online and get people to interact more with your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

If you are a WordPress user, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to add a directory plugin that will let you display information about your partners, your team, or your employees.

This tutorial will show you how to create a simple and easy-to-manage employee directory in your site.

Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List lets you easily create a basic staff directory for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the dashboard and go 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 Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new entry will have been added to the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can just begin adding new employee entries at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your directory groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings screen)

Note: Configuring groups is similar to working with categories in WordPress …

(Groups work just like categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version 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 groups
4. Description – Enter the group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up a new directory category …

(Groups settings screen)

If you manage a medium to large organization, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups 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 entering new items …

To edit Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click on Update Group  to save your changes …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Slug: You can modify the permalink URL for each staff member if you want (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in the person’s role here
• Email: Your employee’s email
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter your employee’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 member here. As this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign your employee to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member fields)

Once you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

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 …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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 category and click on the Add New Group button …

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

(Groups feature)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. 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 employee’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To modify the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about using the admin toolbar , go here:

• Your WordPress Dashboard – A Tutorial

Note: If an error like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly configured your permalinks …

(Not found error? Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Set Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more members to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding employees to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

If you need to change an individual’s entry, simply hover over their name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to modify the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their 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 selecting View …

(Edit Staff Members details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate a member …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered listings)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that listings appear on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list)

After adding all employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin also lets you create the layout and style of your staff list items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Staff Loop 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 show up in your directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your directory listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as shown below …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with CSS code and template tags or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that you can use with this plugin.

A useful variation you can choose, 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 managers”])

Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in your main menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin

You can also export your staff members data by going to the menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin plugin website.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. Here are a few other free plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP 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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

The plugin lets you add custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory

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 or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email, 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 uses a simple shortcode system.

More info:

• Company Directory – WP Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one individual member of your team in a four-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 screen size of 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 plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

Staffer 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 online employee directory …

(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 here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple staff or faculty directory to your WordPress site without using code, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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