No doubt you’ve already heard that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.
If you are looking for simple ways to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help your visitors get to know your organization better.
If you have a WordPress site, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff using a WordPress staff list plugin.
In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in WordPress using free plugins.
Adding A Staff List Directory To Your WordPress Site: Tutorial
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 – WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you staff (you could also use it to display board of directors, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into your dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu will show up in your WordPress admin menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can begin adding new staff entries at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This loads the Groups screen in your web browser …
(Groups settings area)
Note: Adding groups works in the same way as adding categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Enter the slug of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section to set up nested groups
- Description – Enter a group description here (optional)
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new directory group …
(Groups settings area)
If you are a business that employs many people, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for founders, project teams, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To edit or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …
Your selected category details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …
Click Update Group after making changes …
Continue adding group names to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This loads the Add New Staff Member settings 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: Add the staff member’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify the slug associated with your employee if you want (this section appears after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the staff member’s position here
- Email: Your employee’s email address
- Phone Number: Type the person’s phone number into this field
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter the person’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 staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the person to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen options tab)
You will see options to enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
Once you are done inputting each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for creating a new group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …
(New group added)
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 typing in the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To modify the employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here:
Keep adding more details to your employee directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the listing entries and their details …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to edit individual details, hover over their name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Edit Staff Members info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate listing items if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search box)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which listings show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to the desired location …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which entries display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to the new position …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you create the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your staff list, 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 permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Template …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields show in the directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your staff entries will now display with Facebook and Twitter links as as the example below shows …
(Staff profiles with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings 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 assistance.
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 main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
For example, a useful variation you can choose to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on your main menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
This section lets you edit some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin faq page.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out for creating an employee directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory 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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you easily create a directory of faculty/team/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin 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.
For more details go here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone, pic and staff 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight installs with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)
Learn more here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Plugin)
The Staffer 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 employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
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
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an updatable list directory of employees in your web site.
Models used in this tutorial to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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