Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

You have no doubt heard that people often tend to buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help visitors get to know your organization better.

If you own a WordPress website, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your business team, or your staff using a WordPress directory plugin.

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory in your WordPress site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

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)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a free plugin that lets you build a simple staff directory for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WordPress dashboard and from the admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will be added to the main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can begin adding new entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings panel in your browser …

(Groups screen)

Note: Configuring groups is similar to creating categories in WordPress …

(Groups work like categories)

Add new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in a group description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new group …

(Groups settings)

If you work with a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories 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 categories)

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

To change or reassign Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The item will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group to save your changes …

Continue adding groups in this section until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

Once you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Slug: Change the permalink URL for your employee if required (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in the person’s position
• Email: Your employee’s email address
• Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the staff member’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your employees here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or faculty member to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

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)

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

(Add Staff Member settings)

After you are done inputting each staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, 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 appear, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign the employee’s details to the group …

(New group added via Groups feature)

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 typing in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

To update your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

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

• The WP Dashboard Explained

Note: If you see an error like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site’s permalinks …

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial:

• Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more details to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee details 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 table displaying all the directory entries and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members table)

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

Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a member from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Editing Staff Members profile info)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate member details if necessary …

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your employee profiles show on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its new location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding staff details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you edit the style and layout of your staff directory items 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 screen …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory, reorganize any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, here is the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in the directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list should now look like …

(Directory listings with social media links added)

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

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

A useful variation you can add to your page, for example, to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Asia Pacific Region”])

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

Options Menu

Click Staff Members >Options on the dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

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

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need specific help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to 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. Here are other plugins you can look at to add a staff directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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 go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

Staff Directory lets you easily create a directory of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.

This plugin lets you use custom fields …

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

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, pic and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can click through from your list, grid, and table views to learn more about each staff member 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 uses shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just one single member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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 – Plugin For WordPress)

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 staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

If the above plugins 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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add a simple and easy-to-manage list of employees in your WordPress site without coding skills.

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

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