No doubt you’ve already heard that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.
Are you looking for ways to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know you, your team and your organization better.
If your site runs on the WordPress CMS platform, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your partners, your business team, or your staff members using a WordPress directory plugin.
This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-manage directory of employees to your website.
How To Add A Staff Directory To Your Site
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.
Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin
(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)
Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you easily create a simple staff directory list for.
The first step is to install and activate this plugin.
Log into the dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New …
(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)
In the Plugins panel, search for “simple staff plugin”. This should bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.
Click on the Install Now button …
(Plugins – Add Plugins screen)
Click the Activate Plugin link …
(Activate plugin)
After installing and activating the plugin, you will notice that new menu will have been added to your WordPress menu called Staff Members …
(Staff Members)
This menu is where you will manage and configure all of the settings for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in this menu.
Configuring The Plugin
Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can start adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place yourmembers into.
Staff Members – Groups
Let’s start by setting up your directory categories. From your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …
(Staff Members Menu – Groups)
This brings up the Groups screen in your web browser …
(Groups settings)
Note: Adding groups is very similar to creating categories …
(Groups are like categories)
Add new groups by entering the following information:
- Group Name – Enter your group category name here
- Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your category. 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 groups
- Description – Type in a group description here
- Click Add New Group when done to set up your new category …
(Groups section)
If you run a business that employs many people, being able to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create categories for partners, 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 build a directory hierarchy …
(Nested categories)
Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …
To edit or reassign Groups for an entry, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …
The group details open in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …
(Edit Group screen)
Click Update when done …
To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose Quick Edit …
Click the Update Group button when done …
Continue adding group names to this section until you have created your directory structure …
You can add as many nested categories as you like …
(Nested groups)
After you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to start to add names to your directory.
Staff Members – Add New
In your WP admin menu, choose Staff Members > Add New …
(Staff Members – Add New)
This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …
(Add New Staff Member settings)
This section provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding your staff member details and includes the following fields:
Name Section (1)
- Name: The employee’s name
- Permalink: Here you can modify each employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).
Staff Photo Section (2)
- Photo: Add a photo in this section
Staff Member Info Section (3)
- Position: Enter the employee’s role
- Email: The employee’s email
- Phone Number: The employee’s phone number
- Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook URL here (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
- Twitter URL: Type your company’s Twitter username into this field (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: This section lets you assign your employee to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).
Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen options tab)
You can enable additional page settings …
(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)
Now that you know what each section does, enter each staff member’s details …
(Staff directory settings)
After you have finished inputting your staff member’s details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups feature in the sidebar …
(Groups feature)
Note: If you have not set up groups before starting to add staff member details, you can create a group now by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …
(Add a new group inside your Groups box)
A field for creating your new group name will display, with a dropdown menu that lets you assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new directory category and click on Add New Group …
A new directory category will be created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign your employee’s details to the group …
(New group)
Note: Groups cannot be edited when a staff member’s details are being added or edited. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section of the tutorial above for details).
***
After filling in your employee’s details, click the Publish button …
Click View Post …
To make changes to your member profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …
(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)
To learn more about using the admin toolbar , go here:
Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have configured your permalinks correctly …
(Check your permalinks if you get errors)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, see this tutorial:
Continue adding new members to your staff or member directory as shown above until done.
Staff Members – All Staff Members
Once you have added employees to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in the WP admin menu …
(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)
This brings up a list of all your employees and details you have added related to each entry …
(Staff Members details)
If you need to edit an individual’s details, just hover your mouse over their list name, and a submenu will appear.
Click on Edit to modify their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to edit details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your staff directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …
(Edit Staff Members profile information)
Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your list can grow quite large.
You can use the Search Staff Members search box to find items if necessary …
(Search members)
You can specify which fields can display in this screen. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …
(Staff Members Screen Options)
Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide specific fields. You can also specify how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your settings …
Staff Members – Order
The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order in which entries show on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in the main menu …
(Staff Members Menu – Order)
To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the new location …
(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)
Your directory will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered list items)
Once you have added employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the 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 listings display on your directory page.
Select Staff Members > Order in your dashboard menu …
(Staff Members – Order)
To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new location …
(Reorder items using drag and drop)
Your staff list will be automatically reordered …
(Reordered listings)
Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to add your directory to your site users.
Simple Staff List – Additional Notes
The plugin also lets you edit the layout and style of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Templates Menu
To customize the layout and style of your directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your 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, here is the Default Template …
(Default Plugin Template)
The The code shown above displays your directory listing as shown below …
(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)
Notice that no Facebook or Twitter URLs are 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)
Your directory profiles will now display as shown in the screenshot below …
(Directory with social media links)
Note: If you want to customize how your directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.
Usage Menu
As well as being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.
In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …
(Staff Members – Usage)
This brings up the Usage screen …
(Simple Staff List shortcodes)
This screen lists all different shortcode variations you can use with the Simple Staff List plugin.
A useful shortcode variation you can add to your page, for example, to display a list of employees belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”property managers”])
You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).
Options Menu
Select Staff Members >Options on your menu …
(Staff Members – Options)
This opens the Options screen …
(Simple Staff List – customizable options)
Here you can edit labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member title
Finally, you can also export your staff members data by going to your dashboard menu and selecting Tools > Export …
(Export Staff Members plugin info)
If you need plugin support, go to the Simple Staff List faq page.
Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress
Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to build a staff directory in WordPress. Here are other plugins you can look at:
Modern Team Staff Directory
(Modern Team Staff Directory)
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)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Staff Directory
(Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)
With the Staff Directory plugin, you can easily display a list of staff/team/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, teams, etc.
The plugin also lets you use custom fields …
(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot sourced from Staff Directory plugin website)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Faculty And Staff Directory
(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
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 profiles in a widget area.
Learn more here:
Company Directory
(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)
With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your employees to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and single views, plus as fields like position title, email, phone, image and 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 members in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory website)
This plugin uses simple shortcodes.
For more details go here:
Employee Spotlight
(Employee Spotlight – WP Staff Directory Plugin)
Employee Spotlight displays staff 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.
With the Employee Spotlight plugin, you get two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus 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 plugin website)
More info:
Staffer
(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)
Staffer 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 an online staff directory …
(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)
Staffer works with many popular WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
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 List
- Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
- Staff Plugin WordPress
- etc.
Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you learn how to create a simple and easy-to-update staff directory in your web site.
Images of models used to depict fictitious staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum