Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

Many business and marketing experts have successfully shown that people generally tend to buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

Are you looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding an employee directory to your site is a great way to personalize your organization.

This tutorial shows you how to create a simple and easy-to-manage staff directory in your site.

Adding An Employee List Directory

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List lets you easily staff members (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into your admin and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, 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)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new entry will show up in the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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 from this menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could begin to add new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual employees.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings area …

(Groups settings)

Note: Setting up groups works just like categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category 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 if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in your group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create the new directory group …

(Groups settings)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

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

Your selected item will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click the Update Group button when done …

Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member area)

This section 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
• Slug: Here you can edit the permalink URL associated with your staff member if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

If you 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 each employee’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you are done entering details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

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

(Groups > + Add New Group feature)

A field for creating your new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(Groups box)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to an employee or team 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 staff member’s details, click the Publish button …

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)

To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:

• How To Use The WordPress Control Area

Note: If a ‘page not found’ error shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have set up your site permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get a ‘page not found’ error)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs

Repeat the above process to add more members to your employee 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 in the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all the staff profiles and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s details, hover your mouse over their name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members profile info)

If you have many employees, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate a member if required …

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Selecting a check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added members’ details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you edit the layout and style of your employee directory entries 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 – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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 used for displaying listings …

(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 in the directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Directory listings with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with editing code 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 main menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode section)

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

A useful variation you can insert in your page, 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=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List website.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a listing of your employees in WordPress. Here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can use for adding a staff directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

Learn more here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

With Staff Directory, you can easily display a list of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.

This plugin also lets you insert custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Faculty And Staff Directory provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

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

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin lets you add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone, pic 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 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 plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details go here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just a single member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WP 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 source: 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 go here:

• Staffer – WP 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 Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to add an easy-to-maintain list directory of staff or team members in a WordPress site without coding skills.

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

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