How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

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

If you are looking for quicker, simpler and cheaper ideas to sell more products online and get people to stay longer on your site, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospects to get to know you, your team and your organization better.

If your web presence is built using the WordPress CMS platform, a simple way to help visitors get to know you better is to add a WordPress staff list plugin that will let you add information about your partners, your business team, or your staff members.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to create and add a simple employee directory in your web site using a free plugin.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Easily Add A Staff List Directory To Your Site

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

Simple Staff List

(Simple Staff List)

Simple Staff List is a free plugin that lets you build a simple staff directory list for.

The first step is to install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

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

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Click on Install Now …

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Click the Activate Plugin link …

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, you will see that a new menu will be added to the main WP menu called Staff Members …

(Staff Members)

The Staff Members menu is where you will configure and manage all of the settings for this plugin are configured and managed in the Staff Members menu.

How To Configure The Plugin

Depending on how many people are employed in your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can just begin to add new entries at this point, or create different groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to your employees.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s set up your groups. In your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups …

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups settings screen …

(Groups screen)

Note: Adding groups is similar to creating WordPress categories …

(Groups work like WordPress categories)

Create new groups by entering the following information:

1. Group Name – Type in your category name
2. Slug – Enter the slug of your category. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
3. Parent – This section lets you set up a directory hierarchy
4. Description – Type in 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, the ability to create groups can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for partners, developers, 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 organize these into a directory hierarchy …

(Nested categories)

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

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

Your selected item will display in the Edit Group screen. Select a new parent group from the Parent drop-down menu …

(Edit Group screen)

Click Update to save your changes …

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

Click Update Group after making changes …

Continue adding categories in this section until you have created your directory structure …

Add as many nested categories as you like …

(Add nested groups to your directory)

After you have finished setting up your groups, the next step is to start adding names to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

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

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

This loads the Add New Staff Member screen in your web browser …

(Add New Staff Member settings)

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

Name Section (1)

• Name: Your employee’s name
• Permalink: Change each staff members’ permalink URL (this section appears after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

• Photo: Add a photo of your staff member

Staff Member Info Section (3)

• Position: Your staff member’s position
• Email: Type the person’s email address
• Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number
• Facebook URL: Enter your staff member’s Facebook URL (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: Type a profile description for your staff member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatting to the content entered in this section.

Groups Section (5)

• Groups: You can assign an employee or faculty member to a specific group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up groups).

Click on the Screen Options tab …

(Screen options)

You will see options to enable additional features …

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

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

(Add Staff Member settings)

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

(Groups section)

Note: If you have not set up groups before starting to add new staff members, you can create a new group by selecting Groups > + Add New Group …

(Groups > + Add New Group link)

A field will appear allowing you to create 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 category and click on Add New Group …

Your new category will be created. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

(New group added via Groups section)

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 entering your employee’s details, click the Publish button …

Click View Post …

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

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

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

• Your WordPress Admin Screen – A Step-By-Step Tutorial

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

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on using WordPress permalinks here:

• Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO

Keep adding new details to your directory directory as described above.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

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

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

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

(Staff Members list)

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

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

(Edit Staff Members profile information)

If you have many employees, your table can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search box to find member details if required …

(Search Staff Members search feature)

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

(Screen Options)

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

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 page.

Click Staff Members > Order on your menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the entry to its desired location …

(Reorder items using drag and drop)

Your list will automatically be reordered …

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your members’ details to the directory, the next step is to make the directory display to your visitors.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to arrange the order in which listings show on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order in your WP admin menu …

(Staff Members – Order)

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

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your list will be automatically reorganized …

(Reordered listings)

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

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin lets you edit 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 main menu …

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates screen …

(Customize your directory template)

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

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

(Default Simple Staff List Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

(Default 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 example below …

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your listings page will now look like …

(Directory with social media URLs)

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

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your directory templates, the Simple Staff List plugin allows you to display your staff profiles differently using modified shortcodes.

In your main menu, choose Staff Members >Usage …

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This brings up the Usage screen …

(Usage shortcodes)

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

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

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

Options Menu

In your main menu, select Staff Members >Options …

(Staff Members – Options)

This opens the Options screen …

(Options screen)

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

Finally, you can also export your staff members details by going to the WP admin menu and clicking Tools > Export …

(Export Staff Members info)

If you need plugin support, visit the plugin support page and request help from the plugin developer.

Other Employee Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only plugin you can use to display a staff directory in WordPress. For example, here are some other free plugins you can check out:

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Staff Directory

(Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

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

You can also set up custom fields …

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

More info:

• Staff Directory – WP Staff Directory Plugin

Faculty And Staff Directory

(Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Staff Directory Plugin)

The Faculty And Staff Directory plugin provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.

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

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Faculty And Staff Directory – WordPress Plugin

Company Directory

(Company Directory)

Company Directory gives you an easy way to add your staff to your site. Different layouts are included, including list and single views, as well as fields like title, email, phone number, photo and 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 staff member in a customizable single view …

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

This plugin uses a simple shortcode system.

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Company Directory – WordPress Plugin

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WordPress Plugin)

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

The Employee Spotlight plugincomes with two sidebar widgets that let you display featured and recent employees, and two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

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 plugin website)

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin

Staffer

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

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.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Staffer – WordPress Plugin

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

Hopefully, this tutorial has shown you how to create and add a simple and easy-to-manage directory of staff members in your site.

Models used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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