How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Consumer buying habits have successfully shown that people tend to buy from people they know, like and trust.

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is help prospects get to know, like and trust you, your team and your business better.

Adding an employee directory to your site can help let visitors learn more about the people working behind the scenes in your organization.

In this tutorial, we explain how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple staff directory to your site with no coding skills required.

How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory

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 – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you easily build a simple staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin.

Log into the WordPress administration and go to Plugins > Add New …

(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 the Install Now button …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will notice that new menu will appear on your main WP menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members menu)

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.

Configuring Simple Staff List

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

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s configure your directory groups. From your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups section …

(Groups screen)

Note: Setting up directory groups works just like categories in WordPress …

(Groups work like categories)

Create a new group by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group name here
2. Slug – Type in the slug 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 – Enter your category description in this field
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create your new group …

(Groups screen)

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

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

(Nested categories)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each item …

To edit Groups for a specific item, hover your mouse button over a category title and select the Edit link …

The category details open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update when done …

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

Click on Update Group  to save your changes …

Add as many categories as you need to 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 groups, you can start to add staff details to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Staff Member settings …

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Here you can change the slug associated with each employee if required (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Type in your employee’s role
• Email: The employee’s email
• Phone Number: Add the staff member’s phone number into this field
• Facebook URL: Type the employee’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Add your staff member’s Twitter username into this field (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 add formatting to the content entered into this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign your employee to a group (see the previous section to learn how to set up your groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member settings)

Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your item to a directory group in the Groups box located in the sidebar …

(Groups section)

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

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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

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

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or editing 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 entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

You can make changes to your member profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in your WP admin toolbar …

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

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

• Understanding Your WordPress Administration Area

Note: If you see ’page not found’ errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site permalinks …

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

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

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Continue adding more entries to your directory directory as shown above until done.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff members to your directory, you can view and edit details by choosing Staff Members > All Staff Members in your main menu …

(Staff Members Menu – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table with all your directory entries and details you have added for each entry …

(Staff Members table)

If you need to modify an individual’s details, just hover over their list name, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to update the item’s Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to change details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove an entry from the directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View …

(Editing Staff Members profile details)

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

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

(Search members)

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

(Staff Members Screen Options)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unselecting it hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are shown per page. Click Apply when done to save your settings …

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order in the main admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be rearranged …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your employees’ details to your directory, the next step is to add the directory to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings display on your directory pages.

Choose Staff Members > Order in your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your listings, click and drag the entry to its desired position …

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

Once you have added employees’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to display your directory to your site users.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

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

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

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

For example, below is a screenshot of the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Plugin 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 in the screenshot below …

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list should now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs added)

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

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Usage Shortcode section)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can decide to use 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=”customer representatives”])

Or, you can make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”DESC”] (descending).

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

(Simple Staff List – Options settings)

This section lets you modify some of the labels used in the plugin

You can also export your staff members info by going to your WordPress admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin support, visit the Simple Staff List support page.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Staff Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your faculty. Here are other plugins you can look at:

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:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can also insert custom fields …

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

Go here to learn more:

• Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

Learn more here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

With Company Directory, you can add your employees to your website. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone, pic and staff 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 read more about each employee in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin also uses shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just an individual person in a 4-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the screen size of the viewer’s device.

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 website)

Learn more here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

This plugin uses custom post types for 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 source: plugin website)

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

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Staffer – WP 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 List
• WordPress Plugin Staff Directory
• Employee Directory WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple staff or team member directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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