Tag: WordPress Staff Plugin

No doubt you already know that people often tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for simple ways to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Adding a directory of staff or faculty members to your website is a great way to personalize your business.

This tutorial will show you how to add a simple and easy-to-update employee directory to your web site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a free plugin that lets you easily staff members (you could also use it to display faculty, etc.).

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your dashboard and navigate to 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  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu entry will show up in your main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

The Staff Members menu is where you will manage and configure all of the options and settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed from the Staff Members menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can start to add new staff members at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your directory groups go to your WP dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This brings up the Groups settings …

(Groups section)

Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. 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.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter your category description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new directory group …

(Groups settings screen)

If you work with a business that employs many people, 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 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 new items …

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

The category details will open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button when done …

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

Click the Update Group button to save your changes …

Continue adding group names in this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

After you are done setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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: Type the staff member’s name
• Permalink: Here you can edit the permalink URL associated with each staff member if required (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: The staff member’s position
• Email: Your employee’s email address
• Phone Number: The 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: Add your company’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 employees here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: Assign a staff or team member to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

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

(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 employee’s details …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

Once you are done inputting each staff member’s details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups section in your sidebar …

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding new staff members, you can add a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for entering a new group name will display, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Type in the name of your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

Your new group will be added. Remember to tick the check box to assign a person’s listing to the group …

(New group)

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

***

After entering your team member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial on using the admin toolbar here:

• How To Navigate Around The WP Administration Area

Note: If you have set up groups and get ’not found’ page errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site’s permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here:

• Changing Your WordPress Permalinks

Continue adding new entries to your employee directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

If you need to modify individual entries, simply hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can get quite long.

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items if necessary …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Selecting a check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when done to update your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the item to the new location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list items)

After adding your members’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order that your staff entries display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Simple Staff List Templates screen)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Directory listings with social media URLs added)

Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess with CSS code and template tags or are unsure of what to do, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main admin menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode section)

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

A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, for example, to display a list of members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”partners”])

You can also display listings in ascending or descending order by inserting 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 screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

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

You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export menu …

(Export Staff Members information)

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

Additional Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your employees in WordPress. Here are other free plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

Go here to learn more:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

The Staff Directory 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.

The plugin also lets you use custom fields …

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – WP Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

The Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your employees to your site. Different layouts are available, including list and single views, as well as fields like position title, email, phone number, photo 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 read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses shortcodes.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

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

Employee Spotlight comes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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

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

Go here to learn more:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for staff/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 sourced from Staffer plugin website)

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

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Staffer

If the above plugins aren’t what you’re looking for, just go online or visit the WordPress plugin directory and search for:

• Add Staff Directory To WordPress
• WordPress Staff Directory Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update list of staff members to in WordPress using a free plugin.

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

***