How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

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

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products or services online and get people to interact more with your site, then help your visitors get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your site can help to generate more trust, boost your credibility online and get interested prospects to contact you.

This tutorial explains how to add an easy-to-manage employee directory to your site.

Adding A Staff Directory

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

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is a no cost WordPress plugin that lets you display basic information to visitors about your staff members on your site.

The first step is to install and activate this plugin.

Log into your WordPress admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click on the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

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

(Staff Members)

All of the options and settings for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Configuring The Plugin

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your employee directory, you could start adding new staff member details at this point, or create several groups (i.e. categories) to assign yourmembers into.

Staff Members – Groups

To set up your directory groups go to your WordPress dashboard menu and select Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members – Groups)

This loads the Groups settings screen …

(Groups section)

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

(Groups work like categories)

Create new groups by typing in the following information:

1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
2. Slug – Type in the URL-friendly version of your group 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 groups
4. Description – Enter a group description in this field
5. Click Add New Group when done to create the new category …

(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 partners, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you want 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 creating each item …

To change Groups for a particular item, hover over a category title and select the Edit link …

Your selected category details will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent category from the Parent dropdown menu …

(Edit Group settings)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group when done …

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

Add as many nested groups as you like …

(Nested groups)

Once you are done setting up your groups, you can begin adding your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members – Add New)

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

(Add New Staff Member area)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your staff member’s name
• Permalink: Change each employees’ slug (you will see this section after saving your details).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

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

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

• Staff Member Bio: Add a profile description for your employee or faculty member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can use HTML into this section.

Groups Section (5)

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

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

(Screen options)

You can enable additional page settings …

(Enable additional fields in screen options tab)

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

(Staff directory settings)

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

(Groups feature)

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

(Groups - + Add New Group feature)

A field will display allowing you to create a new group name, 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 created. Remember to tick the checkbox to assign a person to the group …

(New group)

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

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

We have created a detailed tutorial on using the WP admin toolbar here:

• Your WordPress Dashboard – A Tutorial

Note: If errors shows up like the one shown in the example below, check that you have set up your site’s permalinks correctly …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding new entries to your employee or faculty directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members on the menu …

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your listing entries and their details …

(Staff Members details table)

If you need to edit individual entries, just hover over their list name, and a menu will appear.

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

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

If you have added many names to this section, your table can become unwieldy.

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

(Search members)

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 at the top of your page …

(Screen Options tab)

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

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that listings display on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on your dashboard menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to arrange the order in which your staff details display on your directory page.

Click Staff Members > Order in the menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To reorder your listings, click and drag the entry to its new position …

(Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will automatically be reorganized …

(Reordered list entries)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin allows you to customize the style and layout of your employee directory entries using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

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

(Staff Members Menu – Templates)

This opens the Templates page …

(Templates page)

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

For example, below is the Default Staff Loop Template …

(Default Simple Staff List Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default Staff Loop Template Listing)

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

(Template tags added to Staff Loop Template)

Your employee listings will now display as as shown below …

(Directory listings with social media links)

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

Usage Menu

As well as being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage page …

(Simple Staff List – Usage Shortcode screen)

This screen displays all different shortcode variations you can use with the Simple Staff List plugin.

For example, a useful variation you can choose to display a list of members 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 adding the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Choose Staff Members >Options on the menu …

(Staff Members Menu – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Options settings screen)

Here you can change some of the labels used in the plugin

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 site.

Additional Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a directory of your faculty in WordPress. Here are other free WordPress plugins you can use:

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

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory)

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

The plugin also lets you create custom fields …

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

To learn more about this plugin go here:

• Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory 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.

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Faculty And Staff Directory

Company Directory

(Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

The Company Directory plugin lets you add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including grid and table views, plus 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 learn more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

More info:

• Company Directory – Plugin For WordPress

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight)

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

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

Detailed information about  each staff 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 – Plugin For WordPress

Staffer

(Staffer – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

Staffer 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 onsite staff directory …

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot source: plugin website)

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

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

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

Hopefully, now you know how to add an updatable simple faculty directory to your web site using free WordPress plugins.

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

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