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 …

WordPress Staff PluginBusiness experts have successfully proven over time that people generally buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products online, then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Adding a directory of employees to your site is a great way to let visitors learn more about the team working behind the scenes in your organization.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add an easy-to-update directory of employees or team members to WordPress using free WP plugins.

Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

Simple Staff List - WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you create a simple staff directory for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New

Plugins Menu - Add New

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins area, 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 - Add Plugins screen

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin

Activate plugin

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new entry will display on the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members

Staff Members

(Staff Members)

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 the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin to add new staff entries at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual members.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your groups. In your WP dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups

Staff Members Menu - Groups

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This brings up the Groups screen in your browser …

Groups section

(Groups settings area)

Practical Tip

Note: Configuring groups is just like configuring categories in WordPress …

Groups work just like WordPress categories

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

  1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
  2. Slug – Type in 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 to set up nested categories
  4. Description – Enter the group description here (optional)
  5. Click the Add New Group button when done to set up your new group …

Groups area

(Groups screen)

If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for investors, developers, departments, etc.

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

Nested groups

(Nested groups)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …

Add New Group

To edit or reassign Groups for individual items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

Edit Groups

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

Edit Group screen

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button when done …

Simple Staff List Update Groups

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

Group name - Quick Edit

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

Simple Staff List Update Groups

Add as many groups as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

adding categories to your directory

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

nested groups

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New

Staff Members Menu - Add New

(Staff Members – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member section …

Add New Staff Member section

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

  • Name: The employee’s name
  • Slug: Modify the permalink URL for your employee if you want (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

  • Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

  • Position: Enter your employee’s position
  • Email: The staff member’s email address
  • Phone Number: Enter the person’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: Add the person’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 staff members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

  • Groups: You can assign the person to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

Tip

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …

Screen options tab

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

Enable additional fields in screen options

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

Add Staff Member settings

(Add New Staff Member settings)

After you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups section located in the sidebar …

Groups section

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up categories before adding staff member details, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group

Add a new group inside your Groups box

(Groups > + Add New Group feature)

A field for entering a 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 the Add New Group button …

Groups box

Your new category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

New group

(New group added in Groups box)

Important

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. 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 typing in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button …

Publishing your staff directory details

Click View Post

View your directory details

To make changes to the employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

Edit Staff Member link - admin toolbar

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

Tip

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

Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the screenshot below shows up, check that you have correctly set up your permalinks …

Not found error - Check your permalinks

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here:

Repeat the above process to continue adding new entries to your staff or partner directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you are done entering employee details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on your main admin menu …

Staff Members Menu - All Staff Members

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

Staff Members details

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to change individual details, simply hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you want to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a list item from your staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking View

Edit Staff Members profile information

(Edit Staff Members info)

If you have many entries, your list can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to locate listing items if necessary …

Search members

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

Staff Members Screen Options

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to save your preferences …

Staff Members Screen Options

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order that entries display on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your WordPress admin menu …

Staff Members - Order

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its desired location …

Rearrange items using drag and drop

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

Reordered list entries

(Reordered list)

After adding all members’ details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which listings appear on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the menu …

Staff Members - Order

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to the new location …

Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

Reordered list items

(Reordered list items)

Once you have added all of your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List allows you to edit the layout and style of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

Staff Members - Templates

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

Simple Staff List Templates screen

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …

Default Plugin Template

(Default Plugin Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

Default Simple Staff List Template Listing

(Default Template Listing)

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

Template tags added to Staff Loop Template

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your directory will now look like …

Directory listings with social media URLs added

(Directory with social media links)

Disclaimer

Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are unsure of what to do, 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 staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage

Staff Members - Usage

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

Usage shortcodes

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen displays all the shortcode variations that you can use.

A useful shortcode variation you can insert in your page, 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=”sales managers”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

In your WP admin menu, select Staff Members >Options

Staff Members - Options

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

Simple Staff List - customizable fields

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin

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

Export Staff Members plugin info

(Export Staff Members info)

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

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a listing of your faculty in WordPress. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

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

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Responsive Templates)

Learn more here:

Staff Directory

Staff Directory - WordPress Plugin

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also insert custom fields …

Staff Directory - WordPress Plugin

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

Faculty And Staff Directory

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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

Company Directory

Company Directory - WP Plugin

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone, image and staff 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 staff member 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.

Go here to learn more:

Employee Spotlight

Employee Spotlight - WordPress Plugin

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

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

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of 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

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

Learn more about this plugin 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 a staff directory on your website …

Staffer archive page

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

Useful Tip

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

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has explained how to create and add a simple and easy-to-manage staff directory to your site.

WordPress Plugin Staff Directory

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

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