Tag: WordPress Staff List

Something that’s been proven to work in business, is that people often tend to buy from those they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and easier ideas to sell more products online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust your organization better.

If your site uses the WordPress CMS platform, one way to easily help visitors get to know you better is to use a directory plugin that will let you add information about your partners, your business team, or your staff.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory in your web site using a free WP plugin.

Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your Site

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

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is free and lets you easily build a simple staff directory for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WP dashboard and in your admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress 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 Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, a new entry will appear in the main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could just begin adding new entries after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your staff.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your categories. From your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups screen …

(Groups settings)

Note: Adding groups works just like WordPress categories …

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

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

(Groups section)

If you run a medium to large organization, having the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a group 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 assign these to a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

To change Groups for an entry, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

The selected item open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group when done …

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

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to start adding staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member area …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Add the staff member’s name
• Permalink: Change your staff members’ permalink URL (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your staff members here. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual 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 tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory settings)

After you are done entering details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group link)

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

Your new directory category will be added. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign an individual to the group …

(New group added via Groups box)

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 above for details).

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

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Your WP Control Panel – A Tutorial

Note: If an error shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …

(Page error? Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here:

• How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add new members to your staff directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employees to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all the staff members and their details …

(Staff Members list)

If you need to edit individual details, hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members profile)

If you have many entries, your table can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find items if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab at the top of your page …

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide specific fields. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your preferences …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which your staff members display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list)

After adding your employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which your staff members display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List also 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 staff list, select Staff Members > Templates from your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Employee profiles with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess with template tags or are unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to 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, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the plugin allows you to use.

A useful shortcode variation you can decide to use, 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=”property managers”])

You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

Here you can modify some of the labels used in the plugin

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

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List plugin site.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a directory of your staff. For example, here are other free plugins you can look at to create a directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of faculty/staff/team members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.

The plugin also lets you add custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Go here to learn more:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin was developed to provide 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.

More info:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and table views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone number, image and member bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 source: Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

With Employee Spotlight, you also get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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

(Responsive layout with employee circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

For more details go here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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 an onsite employee directory …

(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.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site, so your site visitors can get to know your business better.

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

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