Tag: WordPress Staff Plugin

Something that is generally well known in business and marketing, is that people will buy from those they know, like and trust.

Are you looking for cost-effective ideas to sell more products online? Then help prospects get to know you and your organization better.

Adding a directory of employees or team members to your site is a great way to personalize your organization.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily add an easy-to-manage list of employees to your website without editing code.

How To Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site: Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress)

Simple Staff List lets you easily display information about your staff members on your site.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WordPress dashboard and in your admin menu, select Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This will bring up the Simple Staff Plugin in your plugin search results.

Click on the Install Now button …

(Plugins  – plugin search results)

Click on Activate Plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After your plugin has been installed and activated, you will see that a new menu entry will appear on the WordPress menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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

How To Configure The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you could just begin to add new entries after installing the plugin, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to assign your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your groups. In your dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

The Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings)

Note: Setting up groups is very similar to working with categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. 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.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in the group description (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create a new category …

(Groups settings)

If you work with a business that employs many people, being able to assign people to different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create categories 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 build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested categories)

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

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

The item’s details will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

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

Click Update Group to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested categories your directory)

Once you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to start to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

In your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New …

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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: Your staff member’s name
• Permalink: Change each employees’ slug (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your staff member’s position
• Email: The staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: The staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Type the person’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Enter 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 staff member here. As this uses the built-in WordPress Text Editor, you can format content in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the person to a group (see above to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional page settings …

(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 have finished inputting details, assign the new item to a directory group in the Groups box in your sidebar …

(Groups box)

Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting 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 to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on the Add New Group button …

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

(New group)

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to new employee details. 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 typing in your employee’s details, click the Publish button to add them to your employee directory …

Click View Post …

To make changes to the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:

• The WP Dashboard – An Overview

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

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks

Repeat the above process to continue adding more members to your employee or partner directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished adding staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to make changes to individual details, hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members details)

If you have many names to add, your table can grow quite large.

Use the Search Staff Members search field to find a member if required …

(Search members)

The plugin also allows you to specify which fields to display in this screen. To show or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Staff Members Screen Options)

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 settings …

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which entries appear 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 desired location …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

After adding all employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to add the directory to your site visitors.

Staff Members – Order

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

Choose Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to a desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically rearranged …

(Reordered list entries)

Once you are done adding employees’ listing details to your directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin lets you customize the style and layout of your employee directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates screen)

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

For example, here is a screenshot of the Default Template …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Simple Staff List 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 include the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] tags in the template, as shown below …

(Use template tags to customize your listings page)

Your staff profiles will now appear with Facebook and Twitter links as as shown below …

(Directory listings 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 unsure of how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your dashboard menu, click on Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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

A useful variation you can choose, 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”])

Or, you can 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 opens the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

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

Additional WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Employee Directories

Simple Staff List is not the only plugin you can use to create a listing of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are a few other free WordPress plugins you can look at for creating an employee 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)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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

You can also add custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

This plugin was developed to provide a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.

The plugin also installs a widget that allows you to feature profiles in a widget area.

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin lets you add your staff, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like job title, email address, phone, photo and 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 members in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory website)

This plugin uses simple shortcodes.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, 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 on plugin activation.

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, 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 circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight plugin website)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer)

This 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 an employee directory on your site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

More info:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add a simple and easy-to-update list of employees to your website without touching code.

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

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