Tag: WordPress Staff List

It’s often said in business that people will mostly buy from those they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online, then help your prospects get to know, like and trust you and your business better.

Adding a directory of staff to your website can help increase your online credibility and get interested prospects contacting you.

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to create an easy-to-manage directory of employees in your website.

Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory In WordPress

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a free plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you staff (you could also use it to display partners, etc.).

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into the WP dashboard and from the admin menu section, choose Plugins > Add New …

(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 show up in the main WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could begin adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory categories. In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups area …

(Groups area)

Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group. 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 – Enter your group description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new group name …

(Groups screen)

If you manage a larger organization, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories 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 each item …

To edit Groups for individual items, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

Add as many group names as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you are done setting up your groups, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This opens up the Add New Staff Member area …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your staff member’s name
• Slug: Here you can edit your staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in the person’s role into this field
• Email: Your staff member’s email
• Phone Number: Your staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in the person’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Enter a profile description for your employee here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign a staff or team member 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 page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member fields)

After you are done inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you did not set up categories before adding staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group feature)

A field will display allowing you to enter a new group name, 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 …

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

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to a staff or team member’s details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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

Click View Post …

You can update the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

For a detailed tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:

• The WordPress Control Screen Explained

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

(Check your permalinks if you get ’page not found’ errors)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs

Keep adding more entries to your employee or partner directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

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

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

(Editing Staff Members details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can become unwieldy.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to locate entries if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order in which your employee profiles display on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added all of your employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your directory items 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 main menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Template Listing)

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

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list will now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

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

In addition to allowing you to customize your listing 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 opens the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations that the plugin lets you use.

A useful variation you can decide to use, 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=”customer representatives”])

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

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

Here you can change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export section …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need specific help with the Simple Staff List plugin, visit the plugin support page and request help from the plugin developer.

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only for creating a directory of your team members in WordPress. Here are some other 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)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Staff Directory 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 …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)

More info:

• Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

This 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 a profile in a widget area.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including grid and table views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, photo and staff 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 learn more about each employee in a customizable single view …

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

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

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

Detailed information about  each team member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

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

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for employee management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staffer – WP 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 Directory Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory to in WordPress using a free WordPress plugin.

Images used to depict staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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