How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Learn how to easily add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site with no coding skills required …

Employee Directory WordPressIt’s often said in business circles that people generally buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products or services online, then help your prospects get to know you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory to your site can help increase your online credibility and get more prospects to contact you.

This tutorial will show you how to add a simple and easy-to-manage employee directory to your web site.

Adding A Staff Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

Simple Staff List - WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you staff.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into your dashboard and from the admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New

WP Plugins Menu - Add New

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

WordPress Plugins - plugin search results

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

Activate plugin

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu entry will appear in your WordPress menu bar called Staff Members

Staff Members

(Staff Members)

All of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you can just start adding new employee entries after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place youremployees into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups

Staff Members - Groups

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups settings …

Groups settings screen

(Groups area)

Practical Tip

Note: Configuring directory groups is very similar to working with categories in WordPress …

Groups work like WordPress categories

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Add a new group by typing in the following information:

  1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
  2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
  3. Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
  4. Description – Enter a category description here
  5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up the new group name …

Groups section

(Groups screen)

If you manage a larger organization, the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, project teams, departments, etc.

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

Nested categories

(Nested groups)

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

Add New Group button

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

Editing Groups

Your selected category details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

Edit Group settings

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

Update button

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

Group slug - Quick Edit

Click the Update Group button after making changes …

Update button

Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …

adding group names to your directory

Add as many nested groups as you like …

Nested categories

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

After you have finished setting up your directory structure, you can begin adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New

Staff Members - Add New

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member section …

Add New Staff Member section

(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: The employee’s name
  • Slug: Change each employees’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

  • Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

  • Position: Type in the staff member’s position
  • Email: The staff member’s email
  • Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
  • Facebook URL: Enter your company’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
  • Twitter URL: Type your company’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 employee here. Since this uses the default WordPress Text Editor, you can format content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

  • Groups: You can assign your staff member to a group (see above to learn how to set up your groups).

Tip

Click on the Screen Options tab …

Screen options tab

(Screen options)

You can enable additional features …

Enable additional fields in screen options tab

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

Add Staff Member settings

(Staff directory fields)

After you are done inputting details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

Groups feature

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group

Groups > + Add New Group feature

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for creating a new group name will appear, with a drop-down menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group

Groups feature

A new group will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

Groups feature

(Groups box)

Important Info

Note: Groups cannot be edited 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 of the tutorial above for details).

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After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …

WordPress Publish button

Click View Post

View your staff directory details

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

Edit Staff Member link - admin toolbar

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

Useful Tip

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

Note: If you see ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that your permalinks have been configured correctly …

Not found error? Check your permalinks

(Page error – Check your permalinks)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here:

Continue adding new details to your employee or member directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have added employee details to your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main menu …

Staff Members Menu - All Staff Members

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table with all your directory items and their details …

Staff Members table

(Staff Members table)

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

Click on Edit to modify the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove someone from the directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View

Editing Staff Members profile information

(Editing Staff Members details)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search field to locate a member if necessary …

Search members

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

Screen Options

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide specific fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your screen options …

Screen Options

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that your employees appear on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order in your WordPress admin menu …

Staff Members - Order

(Staff Members – Order)

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

Reorder items using drag and drop

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

Reordered list items

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added members’ listing 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 allowing you to arrange the order that listings show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on your WordPress admin menu …

Staff Members Menu - Order

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to a new position …

Rearrange listings using drag and drop

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

Reordered list items

(Reordered list entries)

Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you create the layout and style of your directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

Staff Members Menu - Templates

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

Customize your directory template

(Templates screen)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template

Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

Default Staff Loop Template Listing

(Default Template Listing)

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

Use template tags to customize your listings page

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

Staff profiles with social media links

(Directory with social media URLs added)

Important Info

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

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage

Staff Members - Usage

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

Usage shortcodes

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the plugin lets you use.

A useful variation you can decide to use, 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=”senior staff”])

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

Options Menu

In the main menu, select Staff Members >Options

Staff Members Menu - Options

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options page …

Simple Staff List - customizable fields

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

This section lets you edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export screen …

Export Staff Members plugin info

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the plugin website.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your team members. Here are some other free plugins you can look at to create an employee directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

Modern Team Staff Directory - Plugin For WordPress

(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

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Responsive Templates)

Learn more about this plugin here:

Staff Directory

Staff Directory - WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

Staff Directory - WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

(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 Plugin

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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 - WP Plugin

(Company Directory)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like position 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 employee in a customizable single view …

Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

Employee Spotlight

Employee Spotlight - WP Staff Directory Plugin

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, 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.

This plugin comes with 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 faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

Responsive layout with employee circle grid

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

Staffer

Staffer - WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

(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 employee directory on your website …

Staffer archive page

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

More info:

Tip

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 Directory Plugin
  • WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
  • Employee Directory WordPress
  • etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to create an easy-to-maintain employee directory in your website.

WordPress Staff List

Images of persons used to display staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group