An employee directory is a database that contains essential information about employees, including their names, job titles, departments, and contact details. It may also feature photos and areas of expertise.
This tool is crucial for enhancing workplace communication and collaboration by allowing employees to easily find and connect with colleagues across various departments and locations, thereby creating a more connected and efficient work environment.
🧩 Check out the employee directory template. This will help you create your directory super fast and help you get an idea of what it can look like with Formaloo.
Step 1: Create a dashboard
Once you log in to your account and go to your workspace, click on "+ New Formaloo" and start by naming your project.
This will open up a template of the dashboard which can be fully customized. Be sure to enable edit mode from the top right side of the window by clicking on the pen icon.
This will allow you to make adjustments, such as changing the logo, name, menus, pages, and the content of the pages in the dashboard.
For the employee directory, we will need two forms: one to capture information about all employees and another for managers' information, which we will link using a lookup field to the first form.
Step 2: Create the first form
You can add the form either by typing in the "/" and choosing "form" or by clicking on the "Insert" button and from "Blocks" choosing the "Form".
✨ Additional tip: Check out our tutorial on creating a form super fast. It covers everything from form settings to design options.
To capture the relevant data for an employee directory, include the following fields in your form:
Text field
To ask for a full name
To ask for home address
To ask for a job title
City field
To ask for the employee's location
Email field
Phone file
Single-choice field
To ask for employee type (manager, board member, etc.)
To ask for a department they work in (sales, HR, marketing, etc.)
File field
to ask employees to upload their headshots
Date field
To ask for the birthday
To ask for the first day of employment
Dropdown field
To ask for employment type (full-time, part-time, etc.)
Lookup field (will be covered in this article)
To link manager from another database
Long text filed
To fill in information about their career
Now that you've added all the relevant fields, you can design the form according to your liking.
✨ Additional tip: To have fully white-label branding on Formaloo, you can remove our branding and add your own.
Step 3: Add a data-view option
Go back to the dashboard and insert the data-view option you find to be the most suitable. You can choose from table, Kanban, gallery, and charts.
The best way to display all information would be to use the table view. Add the table either by typing "/" or inserting a block and connecting it to the appropriate form. In this case, the one created recently.
Once you get form results, it will look like this:
You can delete the form from the page since you will still have access to it through the table. By clicking on "Edit base", you'll be taken back to the form editor - from where you can either edit it or share the form.
Another data-view option best for an employee directory is a gallery. This will display headshots. You can decide what information you want to be displayed on carts by clicking on "customize cards".
Step 4: Create another form
Now it's time to create another form where we'll capture the manager's data, which later will be displayed in the lookup field on the first form.
You can add an additional page or/and a menu from the left sidebar and add a new form there.
Follow the same instructions and for managers, you can use the following fields:
Text field
To ask for the manager's name
Single-choice field
To ask for their department
Email field
Number field
To ask the number of employees they have
Step 5: Use the lookup field to connect data
You can use the lookup field to transfer data to another form and either choose from pre-defined options or create new ones directly within the form.
Once you go back to the first form, click on the lookup field and choose what information you want to be displayed. Select the appropriate base (from the form's title) and select the field information you want to be displayed in the field.
Once you have responses for the second form, the field options in the first form will look like this:
You can add new information about the manager straight from here by clicking on the plus icon and the name of your second form, in this case, "Manager's info".
Step 6: Share the workspace
The best way to stay collaborative with your colleagues is to share the information with them. You can add your team members to your workspace and decide what information they have access to.
✨ Additional tip: Read about the tips to create a perfect employee directory.
That's it! Now you're all set! 🚀