How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Something that is generally well known in business, is that people tend to buy from businesses they know, like and trust.

If you are looking for quicker, easier and cost-effective ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for your prospects to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

If your site is powered by the WordPress CMS, a simple way to help people get to know you better is to display information about your key people, your team, or your staff using a WordPress staff list plugin.

This tutorial will show you how to add an easy-to-maintain employee directory to your web site.

Adding A Staff Directory: Step-By-Step Tutorial

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)

The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you easily display information to visitors about your staff members on your website.

First, let’s install and activate the plugin.

Log into your WP administration and from the admin menu section, click on Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu entry will display on your main WordPress menu bar called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

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

Configuring The Simple Staff List Plugin

Depending on how many people are in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can just start adding new entries at this point, or create various groups (i.e. categories) to place your individualstaff into.

Staff Members – Groups

To configure your directory categories go to your dashboard menu and choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

The Groups settings screen …

(Groups screen)

Note: Adding directory groups works in the same way as adding WordPress categories …

(Groups are like categories)

Add a new group by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your group 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 – This section lets you set up nested categories
4. Description – Enter a group description here
5. Click Add New Group when finished to create a new directory group …

(Groups settings screen)

If you are a business that employs many people, the ability to create categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, project teams, 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 build a hierarchical structure …

(Nested groups)

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

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

The item will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new group from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update when done …

To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and select Quick Edit …

Click Update Group to save your changes …

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

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Nested groups)

After you have finished setting up your hierarchical structure, the next step is to begin to add names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member area opens up …

(Add New Staff Member screen)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: The employee’s name
• Permalink: Here you can modify the permalink URL associated with your employee if you want (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Upload a photo in this section

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your employee’s role
• Email: Add your staff member’s email address
• Phone Number: Add the staff member’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Add the staff member’s Facebook address (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
• Twitter URL: Type the person’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. Since this uses the WordPress Text Editor, you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

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 your staff member’s details …

(Staff directory fields)

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

(Groups section)

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

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

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. Enter your new category and click on Add New Group …

The new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group)

Note: Groups cannot be edited when new employee 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 typing in your staff member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the employee directory …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Your WordPress Dashboard – An Overview

Note: If you see errors like the one shown below, check that you have correctly configured your site’s permalinks …

(Check your permalinks if you get an error)

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

• Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks

Repeat the above process to add more entries to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

Once you are done adding employee details to your directory, you can view and edit their details by selecting Staff Members > All Staff Members on the WordPress admin menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members details)

If you need to edit individual details, hover over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members details)

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

Use the Search Staff Members search field to find listing items …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

You can specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click the Screen Options tab …

(Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s check box displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also specify how many staff members are listed per page. Click the Apply button when done to save your screen options …

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you specify the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory pages.

Select Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Reorder listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered listings)

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

Staff Members – Order

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

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your entries, click and drag the entry to its new location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reordered …

(Reordered list)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

Simple Staff List lets you customize the style and layout of your staff directory listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory listings, reorganize 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 Template)

The This code displays your directory listing as shown below …

(Default Template Listing)

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

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

Your directory listings will now display as as the example below shows …

(Directory listings with social media URLs)

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

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 menu, select Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List shortcodes)

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

For example, a useful variation you can insert in your page to display only members belonging a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”sales managers”])

Or, you can make your listings display 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 Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Options screen)

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

You can also export your staff members details from the Tools > Export page …

(Export Staff Members information)

If you need additional information about the plugin, visit the plugin faq page.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List is not the only for creating a directory of your employees in WordPress. For example, here are other free WordPress plugins you can use to create a directory on your site:

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)

Learn more here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

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

The plugin lets you add custom fields …

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

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin provides 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)

With the Company Directory plugin, you can add your staff, team or faculty to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, as well as fields like job title, email, phone number, 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 uses simple shortcodes.

Learn more here:

• Company Directory

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays staff members, founders or just one single person in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant upon plugin activation.

This plugin includes two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the viewer’s screen.

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

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Employee Spotlight

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress 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 website …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

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

More info:

• Staffer – WP Staff Directory Plugin

If the above plugins 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 Plugin
• Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
• Staff Directory Plugin WordPress
• etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site without using code, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

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

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