Tag: WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

You have no doubt heard that people generally will buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Adding a faculty directory to your website can help to generate greater trust, increase your credibility online and get more prospects buying from you.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to your site.

Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site

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

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you build a basic staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WP administration and go to 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 …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, a new entry will appear in your WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

All of the options and settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can start to add new staff member details at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualemployees into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your categories. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups screen …

(Groups area)

Note: Adding directory groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group category name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group 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 categories
4. Description – Type in the category description in this field
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create a new group name …

(Groups screen)

If you manage a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, developers, faculties, 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 directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …

To edit or reassign Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click on Update Group  when done 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 categories as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Slug: Edit the permalink URL associated with your staff member if you want (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The staff member’s position
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type the employee’s Twitter username here (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 members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you have entered details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

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

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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

A new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group added in Groups section)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. 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 …

You can edit the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• How To Navigate Around The WP Dashboard

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

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs

Repeat the above process to continue adding more entries to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished adding employee or team members to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to make changes to individual details, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Editing Staff Members details)

If you have added many individual listings to this section, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find listing items …

(Search Staff Members search field)

You can specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Screen Options)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to update your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

After adding your employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which entries appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to the desired location …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you edit the style and layout of your employee directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(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, below is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing 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 up in the directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown below …

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Here is what your listings page should now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that you can use.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can choose 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 WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

You can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export screen …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need any help with the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the Simple Staff List faq page and request help from the plugin developer.

Additional Employee Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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 – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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 lets you add custom fields …

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

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This 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 profiles in a widget area.

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 source: Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just an 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.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

Detailed information about  each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 online staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

If the directory plugins listed above aren’t what you’re looking for, just go online or visit the WordPress plugin directory and search for:

• Add Staff Directory To WordPress
• WordPress Staff Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to add a simple and easy-to-update directory of staff members to your website.

Images used to portray fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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