It’s often said in business and marketing that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ways to sell more products online? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospects get to know your business better.
Adding a staff directory to your site is a great way to let visitors learn more about the people behind your organization.
This tutorial shows you how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff to your WordPress site.
Adding An Employee List Directory: Plugin Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate this plugin.
Log into your admin and from the admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu will display on your main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
How To Configure The Plugin
Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin to add new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your categories. In your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This takes you to the Groups panel …
(Groups screen)
Note: Setting up directory groups is similar to working with categories in WordPress …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Type in 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 – Type in the group description here
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new group name …
(Groups settings area)
If you manage a business that employs many people, the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, developers, 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 build a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after entering each item …
To change or reassign Groups for an entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The category details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested categories your directory)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings in your browser …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member profile and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Permalink: Modify the slug for your staff member if required (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in your staff member’s role
- Email: Type the person’s email here
- Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address into this field (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in the staff member’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign your employee to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member fields)
After you have finished entering each of you staff member’s details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you did not set up your directory groups before starting to add new staff members, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group)
A field for entering your 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 Add New Group …
A new directory category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. To edit a group entry, 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 the person’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To edit your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If you see ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …
(Page error? Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Continue adding more members to your employee or partner directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table of all the listing entries and the details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to modify an individual’s details, hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to make changes to the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove an entry from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile information)
If you have many individual listings added to this section, your list can become unwieldy.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find a member …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to 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 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 finished to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings display on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the WordPress admin menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its new location …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding all members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which entries show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order on your main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its desired location …
(Reorder listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list entries)
After adding your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List lets you edit the layout and style of your employee 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 your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To display these fields, we 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)
Your staff details will now display as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory listings with social media URLs added)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful variation you can insert in 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=”senior staff”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options screen)
This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members info by going to the menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the Simple Staff List plugin site.
Other Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your staff. Here are other free plugins you can check out:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Modern Team Staff Directory 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:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily create a directory of staff/faculty/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you set up custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.
The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.
For more details go here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Plugin)
With Company Directory, you can easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone, 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 employee in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)
This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one 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.
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 staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
Staffer 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 sourced from Staffer website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Learn more here:
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 Directory Plugin
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Employee Directory WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update employee directory in WordPress.
Images of persons used to display fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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