Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people often tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products online or get people to interact more on your site, then help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Adding a staff directory to your website can lead to greater trust, boost your online credibility and get more prospects making enquiries.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to create and add an easy-to-update simple employee directory to WordPress using a free plugin.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List lets you easily display information about your staff members on your website.

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

Log into your admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins panel, 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  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new entry will display on the WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start to add new employee entries at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your directory categories. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups screen …

(Groups settings)

Note: Configuring directory groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. 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.
3. Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in a category description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create a new category …

(Groups settings area)

If you are a larger organization, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group 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 build a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

Remember to click the Add New Group button after entering new items …

To edit Groups for an individual entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The item’s details will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new category from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click on Update Group  when done to save your 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 have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WordPress admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member area …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

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

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The staff member’s role
• Email: The staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your employee’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter your 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 in a profile description for your employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to 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 Staff Member settings)

After you have finished inputting details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up categories before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for entering your group name will appear, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new directory category will be added. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

(New group added)

Note: You cannot edit groups 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 entering your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• How To Use Your WP Administration Section

Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

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

• Changing Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new members to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding employees into your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list with all your staff profiles and their details …

(Staff Members details)

If you need to modify individual details, simply hover your mouse over their list name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from your employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to locate listing items if required …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this section. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide specific fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done 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 listings show on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which your employees show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to a desired position …

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin lets you create the layout and style of your staff directory entries 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 page …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, here is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your employee listings will now display Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …

(Employee profiles with social media links)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up 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 shortcode variation you can add, 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=”property managers”])

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

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(Options settings screen)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need any help with the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin faq page.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your staff in WordPress. Here are a few other plugins you can look at to create an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin lets you set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory website)

More info:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

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 profiles in a widget area.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, as well as fields like job title, email address, phone number, photo and staff bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just one individual member of your team in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

Detailed information about  each staff member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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 a staff directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

If the directory plugins listed above 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
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add a simple and easily updatable directory of staff or team members in a WordPress site without coding skills.

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

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