Tag: WordPress Staff Plugin

You have no doubt heard that people will mostly buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If your website runs on the WordPress CMS platform, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to use a WordPress directory plugin that will let you display information about your partners, your business team, or your staff.

This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-manage directory of staff members to your WordPress site.

Plugin Tutorial: Adding An Employee Directory In WordPress

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 WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you employee.

First, let’s install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WordPress dashboard and in your admin menu section, choose 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 the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will show up in your main WP admin menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

This menu is where you will configure and manage all of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just start adding new employee details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

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

(Staff Members – Groups)

This opens up the Groups section …

(Groups settings area)

Note: Setting up directory groups is very similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your 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 groups
4. Description – Enter the category description
5. Click the Add New Group button when done to create your new directory category …

(Groups settings screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, developers, 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 the Add New Group button after entering each new item …

To edit Groups for an individual entry, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

To change your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Click Update Group after making changes …

Continue adding categories to this section until you have created your directory structure …

You can add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This opens up the Add New Staff Member screen …

(Add New Staff Member section)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Type the staff member’s name
• Slug: You can modify your employees’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your staff or faculty member here. Since this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: This section lets you assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen …

(Screen options tab)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory fields)

After you have entered each of you staff member’s details, assign your new item to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups box)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group)

A field will appear allowing you to enter a new group name, with a drop-down 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 …

Your new directory category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(Groups box)

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

***

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

Click View Post …

You can modify the person’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

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

• Your WordPress Dashboard – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

Note: If ’not found’ page errors like the one shown in the example below shows up, check that you have set up your permalinks correctly …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

For a detailed tutorial on setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here:

• Changing WordPress Permalinks

Keep adding new details to your directory directory until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you are done adding employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory items and their details …

(Staff Members list)

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

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

(Editing Staff Members profile)

If you have many names to add, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to locate a member …

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box 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 preferences …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that your staff entries display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to its desired location …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to specify the order in which your employee listings show on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on the main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the entry to its new location …

(Reorder employee listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

After adding all employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to make your directory show to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory listings, insert any of the allowed 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 Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To make these fields display in your directory, you will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags to 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 links)

Note: If you want to customize how your staff directory looks but don’t want to mess around with template tags or are not sure what to do, 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 menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations that the Simple Staff List plugin lets you use.

A useful shortcode variation you can choose, 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 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 WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options page …

(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 from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need specific help with the plugin, visit the Simple Staff List plugin website and request help from the plugin developer.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to build a directory of your employees in WordPress. Here are other free plugins you can use for creating a staff directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory)

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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also insert custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory plugin website)

For more details go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

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 a profile in a widget area.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

With Company Directory, you can easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are available, including list and customizable single views, as well as fields like position title, email address, phone number, pic and 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 employee in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

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

Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, 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 employee circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight website)

More info:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Plugin)

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 Staffer plugin website)

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

For more details go here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

If the directory plugins listed above 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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Simple Staff List Template WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple employee or team member directory to your WordPress site, so your site visitors can get to know your organization better.

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

***