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When you are creating a website you may want to create a page that shows off your staff, you may want to do that on your about us or meet our staff page. There are reasons why you should do so, reasons why you may not want to, and how to have a directory on your website or just for your company.
Why you should do so
If you want make your site more “humanized” then consider having a staff directory. What departments does the company have (and what are they responsible for)? What does everyone look like? What does each staff member do outside of work? Do they have any interesting blogs or YouTube channels they want to highlight? Do they have any work-related social media channels they want to share? This is a great chance for this to be shared (or as blog posts spotlighting certain staff), not every employee has to share that information as some many have more to share than others.
It can also show off your company culture. This is not just good for potential employees but for those who may be wondering if they want to work with your company. The type of pictures you use will depends on many things, what does the average employee wear to work, what does the company want to portray to the world, and many other similar things.
This can also show off that your company is a “real” company rather than just another company with a website.
Why you may not want to do so
There are also numerous reasons why you may not want to have a public staff directory, having an high employee turnover will require the staff directory to change constantly.
An employee may not want their image or even name listed publicly, it could be because of not giving consent, privacy reasons or that they have reasons to hide their current location, or due to controversy. If an employee doesn’t want to be listed please don’t ask for details as they may not want to share them. Former employee’s could also use GDPR to get their information removed from your website if you still have them listed.
There are many companies who want to look like a bigger company than they actually are, if you show off a staff directory then everyone can easily see the few employees at the company.
There are some things that certain people say customers want on your website. As always it’s your website so you can add or change things that your customers may want. Before adding more to your about us or adding a staff directory take a look at your analystics and see if anyone is actually reading those pages.
A professional photographer isn’t cheap, so there may be a time when the company shouldn’t publish their staff directory and wait until they can afford a professional photographer. A corporate website shouldn’t have selfies, or pictures taken on cell phones because it shows the company is either low quality or can’t afford basic things. Before actually taking the photos there are some things to prepare before getting your photo taken.
If your company uses shared email inbox (affiliate link), or shared telephone number (affiliate link) for certain teams then a public business directory may allow someone reading it to get in direct contact with someone (which may not be what your company wants). You may consider putting in those shared contact information, but it may look weird for those reading it to see multiple people have the same contact information.
How to have a business directory
If you decide you want a business directory then there are many ways to do so, one way is Formidable Form’s directory listings (sponsored & affiliate link). Which is different from all the features that Formidable Forms has (affiliate link) (Thanks to Steve at Formidable Forms for the clarification). There are also many other options, from using another WordPress plugin, to sharing within your company using Microsoft Office (affiliate link), or G Suite.
A business directory, or meet our staff page, may be something you want to include, but you have to think about the negatives before creating it. A business directory also doesn’t have to be public on your website, it could just be used within your organization.
