Tag: WP Staff Directory Plugin

Many business experts often raise the point that people generally tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know your business better.

If you use WordPress, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your team, or your staff using a directory plugin.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and add a directory of staff or faculty members to your site with no coding skills required.

Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory To Your Site

In this tutorial, you will learn how to install, activate and configure a no cost 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 staff members.

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

Log into the WordPress dashboard and from the admin menu, choose Plugins > Add New …

(WP Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

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

(Staff Members)

All of the settings and options for the Simple Staff List plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your staff directory, you can just begin adding new staff members after installing the plugin, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to place yourstaff members into.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by setting up your groups. From your WordPress dashboard menu, select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This opens up the Groups settings screen …

(Groups settings)

Note: Setting up directory groups is just like configuring categories …

(Groups work like categories)

Add 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 name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – Use this section to set up nested categories
4. Description – Type in your group description here
5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new directory group …

(Groups screen)

If you are a medium to large organization, the ability to set up different groups can be very useful. For example, you can create a category for investors, developers, departments, etc.

Create as many groups and nested groups as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested groups)

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

To change or reassign Groups for specific entries, hover your mouse over a category title and select the Edit link …

The selected item’s details will open in the Edit Group page. Select a new parent group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

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

Click the Update Group button when done …

Add as many categories as you need to until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested categories)

Once you are done setting up your directory structure, the next step is to begin adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the Add New Staff Member settings area …

(Add New Staff Member area)

This area provides an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

• Name: The staff member’s name
• Slug: Edit your employees’ permalink URL (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type your employee’s role
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Type the person’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Add your company’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type in your employee’s Twitter username (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 members here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Staff directory settings)

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

(Groups feature)

Note: If you have not set up directory groups before adding staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by clicking on Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups - + Add New Group link)

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

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

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when a staff member’s details are being added or modified. To edit a group entry, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

If you need help using the WP admin toolbar, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• The WP Control Panel – An Overview

Note: If an error shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site permalinks have been set up correctly …

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

If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your staff or faculty directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in the WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table displaying all your directory entries and the details you have added related to each entry …

(Staff Members details)

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

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

(Editing Staff Members profile information)

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

You can use the Search Staff Members search field to find member details …

(Search members)

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

(Screen Options tab)

Tick or untick the checkboxes to show or hide fields. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click Apply when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to the new position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Staff Members – Order

The Simple Staff List plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which entries show on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to a new location …

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your member details to your directory, the next step is to make your directory display to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you create the style and layout of your directory listings 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 WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, here is the default template used for displaying listings …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your directory should now look like …

(Staff profiles with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your main admin menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen provides a list of all different shortcode variations that you can use with the plugin.

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

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

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options in your main admin menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings screen)

Here you can modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

You can also export your staff members details by going to the menu and selecting Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need help with the plugin, go to the plugin faq page.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Employee Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use. For example, here are other free plugins you can check out for adding a staff directory on your website:

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)

More info:

• Modern Team Staff Directory

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

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

You can also create custom fields …

(Custom Details Fields Screen. Screenshot source: plugin website)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory)

This plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college, school or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin lets you easily add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like title, email address, phone, pic and member 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 in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot source: plugin website)

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

Go here to learn more:

• Company Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, partners 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.

The Employee Spotlight pluginincludes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen in the viewer’s device.

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 source: Employee Spotlight website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Staffer 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 site …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: Staffer website)

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

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Staffer – Plugin For WordPress

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable list directory of staff or team members to your WordPress site using free plugins.

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

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