It’s often said in business circles that people will buy from people they already know, like and trust.
If you are looking for ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.
If you run a WordPress website, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your team, or your staff members using a staff list plugin.
This tutorial shows you how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update employee directory in your WordPress site.
How To Add A Staff Directory
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 WordPress Plugin)
Simple Staff List lets you build a simple staff directory for.
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into your WordPress admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on Install Now …
(WordPress Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new entry will be added to your WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.
How To Configure The Plugin
Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just start adding new employee details at this at this stage, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourgroup members into.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups settings …
(Groups screen)
Note: Setting up groups is just like configuring WordPress categories …
(Groups are like WordPress categories)
Add a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- 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.
- Parent – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter a group description here
- Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new directory category …
(Groups area)
If you run a larger organization, the ability to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups 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 assign these to a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To edit Groups for individual entries, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …
The group open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover your mouse over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Add nested categories your staff directory)
After you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, you can start adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Staff Member section …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Slug: Here you can modify your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: The employee’s role
- Email: Your employee’s email
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Enter your company’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 here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: Assign the individual to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
If you 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 staff member’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
After you have entered each staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups section located in the sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you did not set up directory groups before starting to add new staff members, you can create a group now by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group link)
A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on Add New Group …
A new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an entry to the group …
(New group added)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’s details. To edit a group entry, 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 your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
You can make changes to your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If you have set up groups and get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have configured your site’s permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get a ‘page not found’ error)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done entering staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the staff members and details you have added for each entry …
(Staff Members details table)
If you need to modify an individual’s details, hover over their list 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 a listing from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Edit Staff Members profile info)
If you have many employees, your list can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search box to locate member details …
(Search Staff Members search field)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Screen Options)
Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to update your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which your staff members display on your directory page.
Click Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to the desired position …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you are done adding all of your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that listings appear on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to its desired position …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin allows you to edit the layout and style of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the style and layout of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the allowed template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is the default template used for displaying listings …
(Default Staff Loop Template)
The The code shown above displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter addresses showing in the above example. To make these fields show in the directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)
Your directory listings will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory listings with social media links added)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that you can use with the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful variation you can decide to use, for example, 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=”Gold Level associates”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In the WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
You can also export your staff members data by going to the main menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin faq page and request help from the plugin author.
Additional Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to display a staff directory in WordPress. For example, here are a few other free plugins you can look at:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
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)
More info:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily create a directory of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, schools, etc.
This plugin also lets you add custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.
The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.
Learn more here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, pic and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.
Visitors will be able to 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 members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one individual person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.
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 sourced from Employee Spotlight website)
Learn more here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Plugin)
The Staffer 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 onsite staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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 Plugin
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update directory of employees to your site.
Models used to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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