It’s often said in business circles that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online? Then help visitors get to know you, your team and your organization better.
If your website runs on the WordPress CMS platform, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your business team, or your staff members using a WordPress staff list plugin.
This tutorial will show you how to create and add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of employees in your site.
Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site
In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)
The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily staff.
First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your WP administration and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new entry will show up in your WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
Here is where you will manage and configure all of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Plugin Configuration
Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could just start to add new staff member details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your group members.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s configure your groups. From your WP dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This loads the Groups screen in your web browser …
(Groups settings area)
Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as configuring categories in WordPress …
(Groups work just like WordPress categories)
Create new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your category name
- Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in the group description in this field
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up a new group …
(Groups settings area)
If you run a business that employs many people, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups 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 organize these into a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To change Groups for an item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The group will display in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested categories)
After you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member settings screen)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Your staff member’s name
- Permalink: Here you can modify the permalink URL for your staff member if you want (this section appears after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s role
- Email: Type the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook address here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type in your company’s Twitter username (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. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign an employee or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options)
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 staff member’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
Once you have entered each staff member’s details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …
(Groups box)
Note: If you did not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can add 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 to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on Add New Group …
A new category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign your employee’s details to the group …
(Groups box)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing new employee 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 filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your staff directory …
Click View Post …
To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)
If you need help using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …
(Not found error? Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
Repeat the above process to add more entries to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list with all the directory items and details you have added with each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to edit individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to update 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 employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members profile information)
If you have many names to add, your table can grow quite large.
Use the Search Staff Members search field to find a member if required …
(Search members)
The plugin also allows you to 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)
Selecting a check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your screen options …
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your employee listings show on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order on the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its desired location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be reorganized …
(Reordered listings)
After adding all members’ details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which listings show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to a new location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added member listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to create 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 directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens 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 Template …
(Default Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To display these fields, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee entries will now display as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory listings with social media URLs added)
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 help.
Usage Menu
As well as allowing you to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WordPress admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage screen …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to your page to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Asia Pacific Region”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Options screen)
Here you can change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members info by going to your main menu and choosing Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin information)
If you need help with the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin support page and contact the plugin developer.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List isn’t the only WordPress staff directory plugin you can use. Here are some other plugins you can check out to add a directory on your website:
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)
Learn more here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Staff Directory plugin lets you easily display a list of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.
You can also use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
More info:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin was developed to provide 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.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
Company Directory lets you easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone number, image and bio, allowing visitors to get to know 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 sourced from plugin website)
This plugin uses shortcodes.
Go here to learn more:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just a single 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 plugincomes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.
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 source: plugin website)
Learn more here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP 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 online employee directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
To learn more about this plugin go here:
If the directory plugins listed above 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
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to create an easy-to-maintain employee directory in WordPress.
Models used to portray sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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