Forum Moderators: not2easy
Personally, I think this is kinda cheesy and old school but the boss thinks it helps with PR (hometown feel kinda thing). We are an insurance company with about 15 staff members. So putting a face to voice on the phone can be important.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
However, each staff member should be allowed to opt out of having his/her picture posted online. If someone opts out, you could optionally add a cute excuse for not showing it- "Ms. Smith is so busy running around the office providing superior support for our staff that all the pictures we took of her came out too blurry."
That said, take some of the suggestions posted above to heart. Depending on your turnover and employees' willingness to participate, your staff page can become a horrendous fiasco.
And if you have more than 10 people on a staff page, you're nuts. And by that I mean that I'm nuts, because my sites have 35 - 50 people on the pages.
By all means, get those staff pages up there! High quality professional photographs are a must. Portrait photographs with same backgrounds are the ultimate. Schedule a photographer to come into the office. Plan in advance so everyone can be prepared.
Building an Effective Staff Bio
Things you'll need...
You should produce at least one "full page" for each staff member. Use an image that is 240x300 (portrait) or whatever size suits your layout, the bigger, the better. I prefer neck up shots (head shots). They have the most impact. Next in line would be a mid section up shot, they also perform well.
Use the persons first name and last name at the beginning of the <title> element. Use the person's first name and last name at the beginning of the description, not the second or third words, but the first two.
Be sure to use the persons full name for the staff sub menu (anchor text).
Structure your staff area like so...
/staff/first-last/Be sure to use the persons first name and last name in the alt attribute for their picture.
Do not list email addresses period! If you have an online contact form, link to that and let them submit a request that way. Or, develop a custom contact form for staff members only. There are a variety of ways to do this in both static and dynamic environments.
The list goes on and on. Treat those staff pages like gold. Let staff make updates as needed (or submit them to someone who makes updates). Once the staff pages are indexed, you should be able to tell them (the staff) that they can Google their name and hopefully they will be right there ATF (Above the Fold). More common names may be a bit more difficult to rank in the top ten. There are ways to address this. :)
=]
I did a site for a beautician / health therapist and included pics of the staff. They were female and attractive... and attracted a number of, let's say, unwanted personal phone calls. Sad to say, there are some strange people out there. Worth bearing in mind...
They were female and attractive... and attracted a number of, let's say, unwanted personal phone calls
Every single staff page I have ever done for a company has told me this about their young female employees. As you can guess, it gets worse when you have their email addresses posted as well. Good point ringsoft, it's definitely something to keep in mind
And I concur with the others .. I'm all for putting a human face on to the web, we forget it much too often, remember your still dealing with people and ( normal ) people still like to see a friendly face ...
I did a site for a beautician / health therapist and included pics of the staff. They were female and attractive... and attracted a number of, let's say, unwanted personal phone calls. Sad to say, there are some strange people out there.
This is all part of the process. You have to weigh the pros and cons of posting photographs of staff. That is why I suggest professional portrait photos in appropriate attire. It's the images that will solicit the responses. Making sure those images minimize those solicitations is key.
I've had to remove an entire staff section in the past. Why? Because the client was tired of his competition contacting his sales force and attempting to hire them away. It didn't work but the client just didn't want his personnel hounded by recruiters and such.
You definitely need to take all of this into consideration when setting up any sort of pages where personal information may be available. That's why you keep the personal info to an absolute minimum. You would never, ever list an email address on a web page, it's bad practice unless of course you've taken the necessary steps to prevent indexing both behind the scenes and visually. Even then, I think it is bad practice. I'd prefer a link to a secure contact form that doesn't expose the email address in any shape or form.
