Something that is often quoted in business, is that people will mostly buy from those they already know, like and trust.
If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online, then one of the things you can do, is help your visitors get to know your business better.
If you are a WordPress user, one way to easily help people get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff members using a staff list plugin.
This tutorial explains how to add an easy-to-manage staff directory to your site.
WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress
(Simple Staff List)
Simple Staff List lets you staff members (you could also use it to display faculty members, etc.).
The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.
Log into the admin and go to 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 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 appear in your main WP menu section called Staff Members …
(Staff Members menu)
All of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed from this menu.
Configuring Simple Staff List
Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you could begin to add new staff details at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourstaff into.
Staff Members – Groups
To configure your directory groups go to your dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members – Groups)
This brings up the Groups screen …
(Groups screen)
Note: Configuring directory groups works in the same way as configuring categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Create a new group by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Type in the slug of your group category name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
- Parent – Use this section if you plan to set up nested categories
- Description – Enter your category description in this field
- Click the Add New Group button when finished to create a new category …
(Groups area)
If you manage a business that employs many people, having the ability to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, project teams, 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 organize these into a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after entering each item …
To change Groups for individual items, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The item open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click the Update button when done …
To change the Group name or slug, hover over the group name and click on the Quick Edit menu feature …
Click Update Group to save your changes …
Continue adding categories to this section until you are done creating your directory structure …
Add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
Once you are done setting up your groups, the next step is to begin adding staff details to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
From your WP admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
The Add New Staff Member screen …
(Add New Staff Member section)
This page provides an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member information and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: Enter your employee’s name
- Permalink: Edit each employees’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo of your staff member
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Your employee’s role
- Email: Type the person’s email address
- Phone Number: Type in your staff member’s phone number here
- Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type the person’s Twitter username (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. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML in this section.
Groups Section (5)
- Groups: This section lets you assign your staff member to a group (see above 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 tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your staff member’s details …
(Add Staff Member settings)
Once you are done inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …
(Groups section)
Note: If you have not set up your directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Groups > + Add New Group feature)
A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
A new directory category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …
(New group added in Groups section)
Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or editing a staff 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).
***
After entering the person’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …
Click View Post …
To modify your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using the admin toolbar here:
Note: If you have set up groups and get errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly set up your site’s permalinks …
(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:
Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your staff directory directory.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
After entering employee or team members to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the menu …
(Staff Members – All Staff Members)
This brings up a table listing all the employees and their details …
(Staff Members details list)
If you need to change an individual’s details, simply hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to edit their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete a member from your employee directory by clicking on Trash, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Editing Staff Members profile info)
If you have many items added to this section, your list can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search field to locate member details if necessary …
(Search Staff Members search feature)
The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options …
(Staff Members Screen Options tab)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your preferences …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that your employee profiles appear on your directory page.
Choose Staff Members > Order in your main menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the item to the desired position …
(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory 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 entries display on your directory pages.
Choose Staff Members > Order in the menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to the desired location …
(Rearrange items using drag and drop)
Your list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to display your directory to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
Simple Staff List allows you to edit the layout and style of your employee directory listings 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 menu …
(Staff Members – Templates)
This brings up the Templates page …
(Customize your directory template)
To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.
For example, below is the default template used for displaying directory listings …
(Default Simple Staff List Template)
The above code displays the listing shown below …
(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are showing in the above listing. To make these fields show up in your directory, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to the template, as shown below …
(Use template tags to customize your directory page)
Here is what your listings page will now look like …
(Staff profiles with social media URLs)
Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with CSS code and template tags or are not sure 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 listings differently using modified shortcodes.
In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members Menu – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List plugin shortcodes)
This screen lists all the shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.
A useful shortcode 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=”Asia Pacific Region”])
You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).
Options Menu
In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …
(Staff Members – Options)
This brings up the Options page …
(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)
This section lets you change some of the labels used in the plugin
You can also export your staff members data from the Tools > Export menu …
(Export Staff Members information)
If you need plugin help or support, go to the plugin support page.
Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List is not the only for displaying a directory of your staff. For example, here are some other free WordPress plugins you can look at:
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)
Learn more here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of team/faculty/staff members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for companies, teams, etc.
You can also create custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)
This plugin 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.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can easily add your employees to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like title, email address, phone number, pic 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 learn more about each staff member in a customizable single view …
(Display your staff and faculty in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.
More info:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)
Employee Spotlight displays team members, founders or just one single person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.
Employee Spotlight comes with 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: plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
This 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 staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)
Staffer works immediately with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
More info:
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
- WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in your site.
Images used to display sample staff members in this tutorial were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org