Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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

If you are looking for simple ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a faculty directory to your site can lead to more trust, increase your online credibility and get interested prospects contacting you.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to create an easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your website.

How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily display basic information about your employee on your website.

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your admin and in your admin menu section, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP 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 the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new entry will show up in your main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin adding new staff members at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your groups. From your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings)

Note: Configuring groups is just like adding categories in WordPress …

(Groups work just like categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version 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 a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter a category description
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new category …

(Groups screen)

If you are a larger organization, the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

To change or reassign Groups for a particular entry, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

Add as many groups as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

You can add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Type the employee’s name
• Slug: Edit the slug for your staff member if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your staff or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign your employee to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

Once you have entered 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 groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group feature)

A field will appear allowing you to create 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 directory category and click on Add New Group …

A new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a staff member to the group …

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’s 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 employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your directory …

Click View Post …

To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:

• The WP Dashboard Explained

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

(Check your permalinks if you get a page error)

If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Set Up WordPress Permalinks

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

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members profile details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to find a member if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields can 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)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which entries show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the desired position …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which listings show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to a new position …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to customize the layout and style of your staff directory items using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Templates screen)

To customize your directory listings, reorganize 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 Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Directory listings with social media links)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can choose to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to the main admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need additional information about the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the Simple Staff List site and contact the plugin developer.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to build a directory of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are a few other plugins you can use to create a staff directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This 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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

The plugin also lets you add custom fields …

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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 profiles in a widget area.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email, phone, photo and bio, allowing you to present 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

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

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

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 employee directory on your website …

(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.

More info:

• Staffer

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 List
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple staff directory to your WordPress site, so your site visitors can get to know you and your team better.

Images of models used to display staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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