Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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

Are you searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then help your visitors get to know your business better.

If you are a WordPress user, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to add a WordPress directory plugin that lets you display a directory containing information about your partners, your faculty, or your staff.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to easily create and add a simple faculty directory to your WordPress site without using code.

How To Add An Employee Directory

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you easily staff members.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the admin and from the admin menu, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, a new menu will appear on your main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

Here is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could start to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings …

(Groups screen)

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

(Groups work like WordPress 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 category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in a group description
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create your new group name …

(Groups settings screen)

If you work with a medium to large organization, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

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

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

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click on Update Group  after making changes …

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

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Edit your staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign a staff or team member to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial 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 features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory fields)

After you have entered each staff member’s details, assign your 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 starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, 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 …

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

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee details. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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After filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

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

• An Overview Of Your WP Administration Area

Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have configured your site permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get a page error)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using WordPress permalinks here:

• Setting Up WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new members to your directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your listing entries and their details …

(Staff Members details list)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members details)

If you have many names to add, your list can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find entries if required …

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that your staff profiles show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding members’ details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired position …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to edit the layout and style of your directory items 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 – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, below is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Plugin Template)

The This code will display your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To display these fields, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your employee listings will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

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

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen displays all different shortcode variations you can use with this plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to your page 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 inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the Simple Staff List support page.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. For example, here are other plugins you can look at:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily display a list of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.

This plugin also lets you use custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides 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.

Go here to learn more:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and table views, plus as fields like title, email address, phone, pic and bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just one single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an employee directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: 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, search the WordPress plugin directory or go online and search for:

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee directory to your WordPress site without editing code, so your site visitors can get to know you and the people in your company better.

Images used to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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