Tag: WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Many business experts have successfully demonstrated over the years that people generally tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site? Then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

If you own a WordPress site, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your faculty, or your employees using a WordPress directory plugin.

This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add a simple and easy-to-maintain directory of staff to your website.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add An Employee Directory To Your Site

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

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you employee (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into the administration and go to Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu entry will be added to the WordPress admin menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your directory, you could start adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your categories go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups area …

(Groups area)

Note: Configuring directory groups is very similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

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

(Groups settings screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many categories and nested categories as you want by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

To change Groups for a specific entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected item will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group when done to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your staff directory)

Once you are done setting up your directory structure, you can start to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member settings screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the staff member’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 here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type the person’s role
• Email: Your staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Enter your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type in the person’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in the person’s Twitter username into this field (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 member here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign the individual to a specific group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(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 staff member’s details …

(Add Staff Member fields)

Once 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 box)

Note: If you did not set up categories before adding new staff members, you can add a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for creating your new group name will appear, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on Add New Group …

A new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign your staff member to the group …

(New group added)

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).

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After filling in the person’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can modify your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the WP admin toolbar , go here:

• Your WordPress Administration Area Explained

Note: If errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have set up your site’s permalinks correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new members to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished entering staff or faculty members into your directory, you can view and edit their details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table of all your directory items and any details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members list)

If you need to make changes to individual entries, hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from your staff directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Editing Staff Members info)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find listing items if required …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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 tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to its new location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display on your site.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order that your employees appear on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list)

After adding your staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory display on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also lets you edit the layout and style of your staff directory entries 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 menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates page)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

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

(Default Plugin Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your directory will now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media links)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the plugin.

For example, a useful variation you can choose to display a list of employees belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

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

Options Menu

In your menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options screen)

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

You can also export your staff members info by going to your main admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin support, visit the plugin faq page and request help from the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your staff in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress 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)

For more details go here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you set up custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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 a profile in a widget area.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email, phone, image and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff 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 faculty member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

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

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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 employee directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

More info:

• Staffer

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 Directory Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has explained how to add an easy-to-maintain directory of staff to your website.

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

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