Tag: WordPress Staff List

Many business and marketing experts have successfully proven over time that people generally tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.

Are you looking for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Adding a faculty member directory to your website is a great way to let visitors learn more about the team working behind the scenes in your organization.

In this tutorial, we show you how to easily add an updatable simple faculty members directory to your web site using a free plugin.

How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you display information about your employee on your website.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your dashboard and go 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 plugin search results.

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu will appear in the WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings and options for your plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your directory, you can begin adding new staff members at this at this stage, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups panel in your browser …

(Groups area)

Note: Configuring directory groups is very similar to working with categories in WordPress …

(Groups work like 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 group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Enter the group description here (optional)
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create a new directory group …

(Groups settings screen)

If you manage a larger organization, having the ability to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a group for investors, project teams, 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 organize these into a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

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

The item’s details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button when done …

To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click Update Group to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your staff directory)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

This screen provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add your employee’s name
• Slug: Modify each employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Enter the employee’s role here
• Email: Type the staff member’s email here
• Phone Number: Enter the employee’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type your employee’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 employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so 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 of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options)

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 have finished entering each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new category and click on the Add New Group button …

The new category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …

(Groups section)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff member’s details. To edit a group 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 your team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

• The WordPress Administration Screen Explained

Note: If ’page not found’ errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

(Page error – Check your permalinks)

To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, go here:

• Changing Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new details to your staff or member directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employee or faculty members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your staff members and details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details list)

If you need to make changes to an individual’s entry, hover over their name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members profile information)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate member details if necessary …

(Search members)

You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to update your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order in which your staff members appear on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding staff listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the desired position …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin lets you create the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your directory page)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

As well as allowing you to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode section)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

A useful shortcode variation you can insert in your page, 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=”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

Select Staff Members >Options on your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Options screen)

This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export menu …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need additional information about this plugin, go to the Simple Staff List plugin site and request help from the plugin developer.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to build an employee directory in WordPress. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

This plugin lets you create custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin 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 – WP Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone number, photo 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 employee 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.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners or just an individual person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

This plugin comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, plus 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 source: plugin website)

More info:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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

Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to add an easy-to-manage staff directory to your WordPress site.

Models used to portray fictitious staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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