Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Consumer behaviour research shows that people will mostly buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for ways to sell more products online or get people to interact more on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Adding a directory of employees to your site can help to humanize your business.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add an easy-to-maintain list of employees to your web site using free WordPress plugins.

Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily employee (you could also use it to display faculty, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

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

(WordPress 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 Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will have been added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could start adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory groups. From your WP dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups section …

(Groups screen)

Note: Configuring groups works in the same way as adding categories in WordPress …

(Groups work like categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
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 drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter your group description
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up your new category …

(Groups area)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups 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 edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and click on the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group after making 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 …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: Enter your staff member’s name
• Permalink: Modify your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Add New Staff Member fields)

Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before adding staff member details, you can create a new group by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

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

A new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign an entry to the group …

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).

***

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

Click View Post …

You can edit the employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• The WP Control Screen – A Tutorial

Note: If you see errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site permalinks …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

If you need help setting up permalinks, see this tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding new details to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the listing entries and details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s details, hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from your employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View …

(Edit Staff Members profile details)

If you have many entries, your table can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Click Staff Members > Order in your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

After adding all 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 allows you to customize the style and layout 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 – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The The code shown above will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Your staff profiles will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as as the screenshot below shows …

(Directory with social media links)

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

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you 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, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode section)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations you can use with this plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can choose to display a list of persons belonging only to 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 inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In the dashboard menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

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

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

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need plugin support, visit the plugin faq page and request help from 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 a few other free plugins you can look at to add a directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

The plugin lets you insert custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)

Learn more here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

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.

For more details go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo and member 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 uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just a single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

Detailed information about  each faculty 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)

More info:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin uses custom post types for employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an online staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer

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
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your site.

Models used to depict sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

***