Tag: WP Staff Directory Plugin

It’s often said in business and marketing circles that people will buy from businesses they already know, like and trust.

Are you looking for simple ways to sell more products or services online? Then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Adding an employee directory to your website is a great way to humanize your business.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily add an updatable list directory of staff members to WordPress with no coding skills required.

Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a free WordPress plugin that lets you create a basic staff directory for.

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your dashboard and in your admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu entry will have been added to your WordPress menu section called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Plugin Configuration

Depending on how many people are in your business and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can start adding new entries after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory categories. In your WordPress dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups settings panel …

(Groups settings screen)

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

(Groups work just like categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Type in 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 – Use this drop-down menu if you plan to set up nested groups
4. Description – Type in your group description in this field (optional)
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up your new group …

(Groups screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, having the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for founders, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

To edit or reassign Groups for an individual item, hover your mouse over a category title and click on the Edit link …

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

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group when done …

Add as many group names as you need to until you are done creating your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you are done setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member section …

(Add New Staff Member section)

This section provides 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
• Slug: Edit the slug for your employee if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Type a profile description for your employees here. As this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign the individual to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

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 …

(Add New Staff Member fields)

Once you have finished inputting each of you staff member’s details, assign the new entry to a directory group in the Groups box in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

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

(Groups > + Add New Group)

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

A new group will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group added via Groups box)

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

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After filling in your team member’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can update your employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WordPress admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WP admin toolbar)

To learn more about using the dashboard admin toolbar , go here:

• The WordPress Admin Section Explained

Note: If you have set up groups and get a ‘page not found’ error like the one shown below, check that you have set up your permalinks correctly …

(Check your permalinks if you get ’not found’ page errors)

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

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to add new members to your employee or member directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After you have finished adding staff members into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a list of all the employees and any details you have added with each entry …

(Staff Members details)

If you need to make changes to individual entries, hover over their listing, and a menu will appear.

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

(Editing Staff Members details)

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

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

(Search Staff Members search box)

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

(Screen Options)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to display or hide fields. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when finished to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that your staff entries display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order in your WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the item to the new position …

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your site users.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you set the order that your employees display on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the item to the desired location …

(Rearrange staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added staff listing details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

(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 listings …

(Default Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default 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 loop, as shown in the example below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your directory entries will now display Facebook and Twitter addresses as shown in the screenshot below …

(Directory with social media links added)

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess with code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your listing 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 Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode section)

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

For example, a useful variation you can add to display a list of staff or team members belonging only to a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales reps”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In the main admin menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options screen …

(Simple Staff List – customizable options)

This section lets you change 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 support, visit the Simple Staff List support page and contact the plugin author.

Other Staff Directory Plugins

Simple Staff List is not the only adding a listing of your team members in WordPress. Here are some other free plugins you can look at:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

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, school or university.

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

Company Directory lets you easily add your staff to your website. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, photo and member bio, allowing you to present your company and capabilities.

Visitors can 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 in an easy to view format. Screenshot sourced from plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just one single member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

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

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)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

The Staffer plugin uses custom post types for staff management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage a staff directory on your website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer plugin website)

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

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 Directory Plugin
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Hopefully, now you know how to easily add an easy-to-update simple team members directory to your WordPress site using a free WP plugin.

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

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