Many business and marketing experts have successfully shown over the years that people often tend to buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you searching for cost-effective ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know you and your business better.
If you own a WordPress website, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a staff list plugin that lets you add a directory listing with information about your key partners, your business team, or your employees.
In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily create and add an updatable list directory of staff or faculty members to your website using free plugins.
Tutorial: Adding An Employee 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 Plugin For WordPress)
The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost plugin that lets you display basic information to visitors about your employee on your website.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin.
Log into your admin and in your admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – plugin search results)
Click on the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new entry will have been added to your WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration
Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could begin adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s set up your directory categories. In your WP dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
The Groups settings …
(Groups screen)
Note: Configuring groups is just like adding WordPress categories …
(Groups work like WordPress categories)
Create a new group by typing in the following information:
- Group Name – Type in your category name
- Slug – Enter the slug of your category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
- Description – Type in your group description (optional)
- Click Add New Group when finished to create a new category …
(Groups settings area)
If you work with a business that employs many people, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, departments, etc.
Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested groups)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering new items …
To edit Groups for an individual entry, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …
The category details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …
(Edit Group settings)
Click Update when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on Quick Edit …
Click on Update Group after making changes …
Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you have finished setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members Menu – Add New)
This brings you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
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: You can change each staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Type the employee’s role into this field
- Email: The staff member’s email
- Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Enter the person’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: Add a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: You can assign the person to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen options)
You will see options to enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options)
Now that you know what each section does, enter your employee’s details …
(Add Staff Member settings)
Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you did not set up groups before adding new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups - + Add New Group link)
A field for entering a new group name will display, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on the Add New Group button …
A new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign the entry to the group …
(New group added via Groups feature)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing a staff or team member’s 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 entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …
Click View Post …
To make changes to your employee’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)
If you need help using the admin toolbar, see this tutorial:
Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that you have set up your site permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After you are done entering employees to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table displaying all your directory entries and their details …
(Staff Members table)
If you need to make changes to an individual’s details, just hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from the staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members profile details)
If you have many entries, your list can become unwieldy.
You can use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate listing items …
(Search members)
The plugin also lets you specify which fields to display in this section. 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 fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that entries display on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its new position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added all of your members’ details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your site visitors.
Staff Members – Order
The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to set the order in which your employee profiles show on your directory pages.
Select Staff Members > Order in the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to a new position …
(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically rearranged …
(Reordered list entries)
Once you have added staff details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show on your site.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The Simple Staff List plugin lets you customize 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 directory, select Staff Members > Templates from the dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – 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 a screenshot of the Default Template …
(Default Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To make these fields show in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template loop, as shown in the screenshot below …
(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)
Your staff listings will now display as as shown below …
(Directory with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage page …
(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)
This screen displays all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.
A useful shortcode variation you can add, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”senior staff”])
Or, you can display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Click Staff Members >Options in your menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Options)
This opens the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – Options settings)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles
You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export menu …
(Export Staff Members info)
If you need specific help with the Simple Staff List plugin, go to the plugin support page.
Other Employee Directory Plugins
Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can check out:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
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)
Learn more here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
This plugin lets you insert custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)
Go here to learn more:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)
Faculty And Staff Directory 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 a profile in a widget area.
More info:
Company Directory
(Company Directory)
The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, plus as fields like position title, email, 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 staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.
With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of 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 source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)
Learn more here:
Staffer
(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Staffer 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 onsite staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
Go here to learn more:
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 List
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create an easy-to-manage employee directory in WordPress.
Images of models used to display fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)