Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.
Are you searching for cost-effective ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then help your visitors get to know you and your business better.
Adding a directory of staff to your website can lead to increased trust, boost your online credibility and get interested prospects considering using your services.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to easily create and add a simple and easy-to-update simple faculty members directory to your site using a free WordPress plugin.
Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily build a simple staff directory for.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the dashboard and in your admin menu, choose 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 plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu entry will appear on your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could start adding new staff members at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by configuring your categories. In your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings you to the Groups settings panel …
(Groups section)
Note: Configuring groups is very similar to working with categories …
(Groups work just like categories)
Add new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category. 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 your category description in this field
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new group name …
(Groups settings)
If you manage a business that employs many people, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To change Groups for an item, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …
Your selected group open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click the Update button when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …
Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
After you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to begin to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member area …
(Add New Staff Member area)
This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Type the staff member’s name
- Slug: Here you can edit your employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the person’s position
- Email: Enter the person’s email here
- Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in the employee’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your staff member’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 employee here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign the person to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options tab)
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 …
(Staff directory settings)
After you have finished inputting details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in the sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up categories before starting to add new staff members, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group link)
A field for creating a group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
The new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign an individual to the group …
(New group added in Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit a group entry, 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 the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
To modify the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If you have set up groups and get a page error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Page error – Check your permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Repeat the above process to add more members to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list with all your directory entries and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to edit individual details, just hover over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from the directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
If you have many names added to this section, your table can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate member details if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search field)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options)
Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that entries show on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
After adding your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display on your site.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which listings show on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added all of your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your directory listings 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 the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Templates page)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize 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 This code will display your listing as shown below …
(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, 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 links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess 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 directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful shortcode variation you can choose, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”partners”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Options screen)
This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your main admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List faq page.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your employees. Here are a few other plugins you can look at to create an employee directory on your site:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Staff Directory lets you easily display a list of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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 a profile in a widget area.
Learn more about this plugin here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
This plugin lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just a 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, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
Staffer uses custom post types for staff management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an online staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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 List
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site, 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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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)