No doubt you already know that people often tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you are searching for quicker and simpler ways to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your business better.
Adding a directory of employees to your website can help to generate increased trust, boost your online credibility and get interested prospects to buy from you.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to create and add an easy-to-update directory of employees to your web site.
Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you staff.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into the WordPress admin and go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new entry will appear in the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can just begin adding new employee details at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign youremployees into.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your directory groups go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
The Groups panel …
(Groups area)
Note: Configuring directory groups works just like categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your category name
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter the category description in this field
- Click the Add New Group button when done to create the new category …
(Groups settings)
If you are a larger organization, the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for partners, 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 assign these to a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering each item …
To change Groups for an individual item, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The selected category will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group to save your changes …
Continue adding group names to this section until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested groups to your directory)
After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member settings opens up …
(Add New Staff Member screen)
This page 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: Change the permalink URL for each staff member if you want (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s role
- Email: Add your staff member’s email address into this field
- Phone Number: Type your staff member’s phone number into this field
- Facebook URL: Enter the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add 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: Add a profile description for your employee 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 a staff or team member to a 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 features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Add New Staff Member fields)
After you have finished entering your staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups section located in your sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you did not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group link)
A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new category and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a staff member’s 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 to add them to your employee directory …
Click View Post …
To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar, see this tutorial:
Note: If an error like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that your permalinks have been configured correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get an error)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:
Keep adding more entries to your staff directory directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the directory items and their details …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to edit individual entries, simply hover your mouse over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to update the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a listing from the staff 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 get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search box to find listing items …
(Search Staff Members search box)
You can specify which fields to display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(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 the Apply button when finished to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your employees appear on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the new location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added staff details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which entries display on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to its new location …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin lets you customize the style and layout 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 the main menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Simple Staff List Templates screen)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Template)
The The code shown above displays your listing as shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above example. To make these fields appear in the directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …
(Use template tags to customize your directory page)
Here is what your directory 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 editing code or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you 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, select Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Usage Shortcode section)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.
A useful variation you can select, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”senior staff”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export section …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin plugin site and contact the plugin developer.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your staff. For example, here are some other free plugins you can check out:
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)
More info:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)
Staff Directory lets you easily create a directory of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
This plugin lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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 a profile in a widget area.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone, pic and member 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin also uses shortcodes.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just a single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of 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)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)
This 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 source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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
- Simple Staff List Template WordPress
- etc.
Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee directory to your WordPress site, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Models used to portray fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now