Many business experts often raise the point that people will buy from people they know, like and trust.
If you are searching for ideas to grow your business online, then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.
If you own a WordPress-powered site, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that will let you display a directory containing information about your key partners, your faculty, or your employees.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-update directory of employees to WordPress.
Adding An Employee List Directory To Your Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you easily staff.
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the WP administration and in your admin menu section, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, 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)
Activate the plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new menu entry will appear in the WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start to add new staff members after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.
Staff Members – Groups
To set up your directory groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings up the Groups settings …
(Groups settings)
Note: Configuring groups works just like WordPress categories …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Add new groups by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category 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 categories
- Description – Enter a category description here
- Click Add New Group when finished to set up the new directory group …
(Groups section)
If you manage a medium to large organization, the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to assign these to a hierarchical structure …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To change Groups for individual entries, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The category details will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group when done to save your changes …
Add as many groups as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested groups to your staff directory)
Once you have finished setting up your directory structure, the next step is to start to add staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This page provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter your staff member’s name
- Permalink: Modify the permalink URL associated with each staff member if required (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type in the person’s position here
- Email: The employee’s email address
- Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter 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 staff member here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
Once you have finished entering details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you have not set up categories before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new group 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 an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
To make changes to the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using the WP admin toolbar here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here:
Continue adding more members to your directory directory until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you are done entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all the employees and their details …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to modify an individual’s details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members info)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find items if required …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. 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 in which listings show on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be reordered …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added staff details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which listings show on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to its desired location …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you are done adding employees’ 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 also lets you edit the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Templates screen)
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 …
(Default Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To display these fields, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your staff listings will now display as as shown below …
(Staff profiles with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with template tags 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 directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)
This screen displays all different 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=”sales managers”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Choose Staff Members >Options on the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members data by going to the menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List support page and request help from the plugin author.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your team members. For example, here are other free plugins you can use to create a directory on your site:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With Staff Directory, you can easily display a list of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin also lets you create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin 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.
Go here to learn more:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Company Directory lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like title, email, phone number, pic and bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.
Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders 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.
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 device screen size.
Detailed information about each team member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Staffer
(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
Staffer uses custom post types for staff management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an employee directory on your site …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details go here:
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
- 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 with no coding skills required, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Images used to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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