Business experts have successfully proven over time that people generally will buy from those they know, like and trust.
If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors get to know you, your team and your business better.
If you are a WordPress user, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that will let you display information about your partners, your business team, or your employees.
This step-by-step tutorial explains how to create and add an easy-to-update employee directory in your web site.
WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List 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 Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily build a simple staff directory list for.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into the administration and in your admin menu section, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins area, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(WordPress Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on Activate Plugin …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating your plugin, you will see that a new entry will display on the main WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings and options for this plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start adding new staff details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff members.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your directory groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This loads the Groups screen …
(Groups screen)
Note: Adding directory groups is just like adding categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Create a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your category name here
- Slug – Type in 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 if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Enter your group description here
- Click the Add New Group button when done to create a new group …
(Groups section)
If you manage a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for partners, developers, faculties, etc.
Create as many categories and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating new items …
To change or reassign Groups for a specific item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The selected group details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you have finished setting up your groups, you can start adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This loads the Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This section provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The staff member’s name
- Permalink: Edit your employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Upload a photo here
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your staff member’s role
- Email: The employee’s email address
- Phone Number: Your employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type your staff member’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Add your employee’s Twitter username into this field (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)
Staff Member Bio Section (4)
- Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your staff member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can format content into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign your staff member to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your staff member’s details …
(Staff directory fields)
Once you are done entering each of you staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your 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 …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, with a drop-down menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …
Your new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign a person’s listing to the group …
(Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to an employee’s details. To edit a group item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).
***
After entering your team member’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To update the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about using the WP admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If you get ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that your permalinks have been set up correctly …
(Not found error? Check your permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial:
Continue adding more members to your employee directory directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you have entered all staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the listing entries and their details …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to edit an individual’s entry, just hover your mouse over their list name, and a menu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …
(Editing Staff Members profile information)
If you have many individual listings added to this section, your list can become unwieldy.
Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate member details if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search box)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields can display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …
(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 shown per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your settings …
Staff Members – Order
Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that your employee profiles show on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order on the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered listings)
Once you have added employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which listings show on your directory pages.
Click Staff Members > Order in the main admin menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to its desired position …
(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list)
Once you have added employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your site visitors.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to create the style and layout of your directory listings 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 the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Templates)
This opens the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Template)
The The code shown above displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Plugin Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above example. To make these fields display in your directory, we will need to include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your employee entries will now appear with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …
(Staff profiles with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
In addition to 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 menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This opens the Usage page …
(Usage shortcodes)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations that you can use.
For example, a useful shortcode variation you can decide to use to display a list of members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”customer representatives”])
Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options in the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members details by going to your menu and clicking Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need any help with the plugin, go to the Simple Staff List site.
Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories
Simple Staff List is not the only WordPress employee directory plugin you can use. For example, here are a few other plugins you can check out to add a staff directory on your website:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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 use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides 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:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With Company Directory, you can add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone, photo 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 learn 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 website)
This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just an 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.
Employee Spotlight installs with 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 employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …
(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Staffer
(Staffer)
Staffer uses custom post types for staff 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. Screenshot source: Staffer website)
Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to create and add a simple and easy-to-update staff directory to WordPress.
Models used to portray sample staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)