Business experts have successfully shown over the years that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online or increase user interaction with your site, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know you and your business better.
If you are a WordPress user, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your faculty, or your staff members using a WordPress directory plugin.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily add a simple and easily updatable simple faculty members directory to WordPress with no coding skills required.
Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To Your Site
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily employee.
First, let’s install and activate the plugin.
Log into the administration 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 search results area.
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 on the main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin to add new staff details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff members 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 settings panel …
(Groups settings screen)
Note: Setting up groups works just like WordPress categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Add a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your group category name
- Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in a group description here (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to create the new directory group …
(Groups section)
If you run a larger organization, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, departments, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click the Add New Group button after creating each item …
To change Groups for an individual item, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The item will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update to save your changes …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click Update Group after making changes …
Continue adding groups in this section until you have created your directory structure …
Add as many nested groups as you like …
(Add nested groups to your staff directory)
Once you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member area …
(Add New Staff Member settings area)
This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can change the slug for each 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: The employee’s role
- Email: Your staff member’s email
- Phone Number: Type in the person’s phone number here
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type your staff member’s Twitter username into this field (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 members 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 to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You will see options to enable additional features …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your employee’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
After you are done entering each of you staff member’s 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 starting to add staff member details, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for entering a new group name will display, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …
Your new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group added in Groups feature)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’s details. To edit a group item, 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 your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your staff directory …
Click View Post …
To make changes to the staff member’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the WordPress admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Note: If you have set up groups and get an error like the one shown below, check that you have set up your permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:
Continue adding more entries to your staff or member directory as described above.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table of all your staff profiles and details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to edit an individual’s entry, simply hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit if you need to make changes to the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete someone from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …
(Editing Staff Members profile)
If you have many employees, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate entries if required …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(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 screen options …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that entries appear on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to the new position …
(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you are done adding all of your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that listings show on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its new position …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to edit the style and layout of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates screen …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory listings, reorganize any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields show in your directory, you will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your directory profiles will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as the screenshot below shows …
(Directory listings with social media URLs added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with editing code 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can select to display a list of individuals belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])
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 Menu – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options screen)
This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to the dashboard menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin support page and contact the plugin developer.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List isn’t the only for displaying a directory of your staff in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can use for adding an employee directory on your site:
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)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory)
This plugin lets you easily display a list of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
This plugin lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
The Faculty And Staff Directory 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.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone, pic and staff 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 employee 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 also uses a simple shortcode system.
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just an individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.
Detailed information about each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
The Staffer 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 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.
To learn more about this plugin 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 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 with no coding skills required, so you can showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.
Models used in this tutorial to display staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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