How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Learn how to easily add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site with no coding skills required …

Staff Directory WordPress PluginYou have no doubt heard that people generally tend to buy from those they already know, like and trust.

Are you looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ways to grow your business online? Then help your prospects get to know you and your business better.

If you own a WordPress website, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your key partners, your faculty, or your staff using a WordPress staff list plugin.

In this step-by-step tutorial, we explain how to easily add an easy-to-update simple faculty directory in your site without messing with code.

Tutorial: How To Add An Employee List Directory

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost WordPress plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

Simple Staff List - WordPress Plugin

(Simple Staff List – WordPress Plugin)

Simple Staff List lets you employee.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into the WP administration and go to Plugins > Add New

WordPress Plugins Menu - Add New

(WordPress Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins panel, 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

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on Activate Plugin

Activate plugin

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating your plugin, you will notice that new menu will appear on your main WP menu bar called Staff Members

Staff Members

(Staff Members menu)

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

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your team and how you want to structure your employee directory, you can just begin adding new staff details after installing the plugin, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual group members.

Staff Members – Groups

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

Staff Members - Groups

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings …

Groups area

(Groups settings area)

Useful Tip

Note: Adding groups is very similar to creating categories …

Groups are like WordPress categories

(Groups work just like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

  1. Group Name – Type in your group category name
  2. Slug – Enter the URL-friendly version of your group. 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 your category description here
  5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to create a new directory group …

Groups screen

(Groups area)

If you work with a larger organization, being able to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, faculties, etc.

Create as many categories 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

(Nested categories)

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

Add New Group button

To change or reassign Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

Edit Simple Staff List Groups

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

Edit Group settings

(Edit Group screen)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

Simple Staff List Update Groups

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

Group slug - Quick Edit feature

Click the Update Group button when done to save your changes …

Update Groups

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

adding groups to your directory

Add as many nested groups as you like …

nested groups

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, you can begin to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your WP admin menu, select Staff Members > Add New

Staff Members Menu - Add New

(Staff Members – Add New)

This brings you to the Add New Staff Member section …

Add New Staff Member screen

(Add New Staff Member settings screen)

This screen 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
  • Permalink: Here you can modify each staff members’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

  • Photo: Upload a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

  • Staff Member Bio: Type in 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 your employee to a specific group (see the previous section to learn how to set up groups).

Practical Tip

If you click on the Screen Options tab …

Screen options

(Screen options)

You can enable additional features …

Enable additional fields in screen options tab

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

Staff directory fields

(Staff directory fields)

Once you have entered your staff member’s details, assign your new entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …

Groups section

(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

Add a new group inside your Groups box

(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 the Add New Group button …

Groups box

A new category will be created. Make sure that the checkbox is ticked …

New group added

(New group added via Groups box)

Useful Information

Note: Groups cannot be edited when adding or making changes to someone’s 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 filling in your team member’s details, click the Publish button …

WordPress Publish button

Click View Post

View Post

You can make changes to the employee’s profile by clicking the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

Edit Staff Member link - admin toolbar

(Edit Staff Member link – WordPress admin toolbar)

Practical Tip

To learn more about using the admin toolbar, see this tutorial:

Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site’s permalinks have been configured correctly …

'page not found' errors

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

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

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

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you have finished adding employees into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the main admin menu …

Staff Members - All Staff Members

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

Staff Members details table

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to change individual details, hover your mouse over their listing, and a menu will appear.

Click on Edit to make changes to their Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details like name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also delete an entry from your directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View

Edit Staff Members profile

(Editing Staff Members profile)

Depending on what you are using the plugin for, your table can grow quite large.

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

Search Staff Members search field

(Search Staff Members search field)

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

Staff Members Screen Options tab

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Selecting a checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also choose how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when finished to save your screen options …

Screen Options tab

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you arrange the order that listings show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order in your main admin menu …

Staff Members - Order

(Staff Members – Order)

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

Reorder listings using drag and drop

(Rearrange items using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

Reordered listings

(Reordered list items)

After adding your members’ listing details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order that listings appear on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order on the main admin menu …

Staff Members Menu - Order

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your items, click and drag the entry to a desired position …

Reorder listings using drag and drop

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

Reordered list items

(Reordered list)

Once you have added all of your employees’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display on your site.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The Simple Staff List plugin allows you to create the layout and style of your directory entries 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 menu …

Staff Members Menu - Templates

(Staff Members – Templates)

This opens the Templates screen …

Templates screen

(Simple Staff List Templates page)

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

For example, here is the Default Template

Default Staff Loop Template

(Default Staff Loop Template)

The This code will display your listing as shown below …

Default Simple Staff List Template Listing

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

Use template tags to customize your directory page

(Template tags can be added to the Staff Loop Template to customize your listings page)

Your employee details will now display as shown in the screenshot below …

Directory with social media URLs added

(Directory with social media URLs added)

Warning

Note: If you want to customize your directory but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are not sure what to do, please contact us for help.

Usage Menu

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

In your menu, click on Staff Members >Usage

Staff Members - Usage

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage page …

Usage Shortcode screen

(Usage shortcodes)

This screen lists all different shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful shortcode variation you can add to display a list of individuals 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 make your listings display in ascending or descending order by using the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

In the menu, select Staff Members >Options

Staff Members Menu - Options

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

Simple Staff List - customizable fields

(Simple Staff List – customizable fields)

This section lets you modify labels like Staff Members URL Slug and Staff Member titles

You can also export your staff members info by going to your dashboard menu and selecting Tools > Export

Export Staff Members plugin information

(Export Staff Members plugin info)

If you need plugin help or support, visit the Simple Staff List plugin website.

Other WordPress Plugins For Creating Simple Staff Directories

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to create a faculty directory in WordPress. Here are some other plugins you can check out to add a directory on your site:

Modern Team Staff Directory

Modern Team Staff Directory - Plugin For WordPress

(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 - Plugin For WordPress

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Responsive Templates)

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

Staff Directory

Staff Directory - WP Staff Directory Plugin

(Staff Directory)

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

You can also create custom fields …

Staff Directory - WP Staff Directory Plugin

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

More info:

Faculty And Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory - Plugin For WordPress

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin)

Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

Company Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

The Company Directory plugin lets you easily add your staff 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 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 in an easy-to-view format

(Display your staff and faculty in an easy-to-view format. Screenshot sourced from Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses a simple shortcode system.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

Employee Spotlight

Employee Spotlight - WordPress Plugin

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, partners or just a 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 includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees selected in the editor, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

Detailed information about  each employee can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

Responsive layout with employee circle grid

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot sourced from Employee Spotlight plugin website)

Learn more here:

Staffer

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory 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 onsite employee directory …

Staffer archive page

(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.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

Tip

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

Congratulations! Now you know how to add and create a simple employee or team member directory to your WordPress site, so your web visitors can get to know you and the people in your company better.

WordPress Staff List

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

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"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org

Originally published as How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress.