Tag: WordPress Staff List

Consumer behaviour studies show that people will mostly buy from those they already know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to sell more products online and increase user interaction with your site, then help visitors get to know, like and trust your business better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your website can help boost your online credibility and get interested prospects buying from your site.

In this tutorial, we show you how to easily create and add an updatable simple employee directory to your website using a free WordPress plugin.

Adding An Employee Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you staff members.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the dashboard and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu entry will appear on your main WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

Here is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your business and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can begin adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups panel …

(Groups area)

Note: Adding groups is very similar to working with categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Add a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group 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 nested categories
4. Description – Enter a category description
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up your new group …

(Groups section)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for founders, project teams, departments, etc.

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

(Nested categories)

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

To change or reassign Groups for a particular item, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button after making changes …

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

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

After you are done setting up your groups, you can begin adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the employee’s name
• Slug: You can edit your employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employee here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign your employee to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory fields)

Once you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups feature located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

Note: If you did not set up your directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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

A new category will be created. Remember to tick the check box to assign a person’s entry to the group …

(New group added)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee details are being added or edited. 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 your staff or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

To edit your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

If you need help using the admin toolbar , go here:

• Your WP Administration Area – An Overview

Note: If you have set up groups and get a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get a ‘page not found’ error)

If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding more details to your employee directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

If you need to edit an individual’s entry, simply hover your mouse over their name, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to make changes to the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a listing from your directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by clicking on View …

(Edit Staff Members profile details)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find a member if necessary …

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which your employees show on your directory page.

Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

After adding your staff details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which your employees display on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list items)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

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

(Default Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Your directory entries will now display with Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the example below …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

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

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 menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to use.

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

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 on the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you change labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title

You can also export your staff members data by going to your dashboard menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin support, visit the plugin faq page and contact the plugin author.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your staff in WordPress. Here are some other free plugins you can use:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Modern Team Staff Directory 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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also use custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

This plugin was developed to provide 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 profiles in a widget area.

For more details go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, plus as fields like position title, email, phone, image 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 learn more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

Go here to learn more:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays team members, partners or just one individual person in a 4-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, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Plugin)

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 plugin website)

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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

Hopefully, this step-by-step tutorial has shown you how to create and add an easy-to-update staff directory to your web site.

Images of persons used in this tutorial to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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