How to Sync Your WordPress Employee Directory with Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)
If your organization manages employee accounts through Microsoft Entra ID, formerly known as Azure AD, keeping a separate employee directory on your WordPress site up to date usually means manual work: someone exports a list, reformats it, and re-uploads it every time a person joins, leaves, or changes roles. For organizations with 100 to 1,000+ employees, that process breaks down fast.
This guide covers what Microsoft Entra ID sync actually does for a WordPress employee directory, how the connection works, and what to check before setting it up.
What is Microsoft Entra ID?
Microsoft Entra ID is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and directory service, the same platform previously known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). It’s the system many organizations already use to manage logins, permissions, and user accounts across Microsoft 365, Office 365, and other connected apps. If your company uses Microsoft 365 for email, chances are your employee accounts already live in Entra ID.
Why sync Entra ID with your WordPress directory?
Without a direct connection, your WordPress employee directory and your Entra ID user list are two separate systems that can drift out of sync the moment either one changes. A new hire shows up in Entra ID on day one, but might not appear on the website directory for weeks. Someone leaves the company, and their profile stays live on the public-facing directory long after their access was revoked elsewhere.
Syncing the two systems means:
- New employees appear on the directory automatically once they’re added to Entra ID, no manual entry required.
- Departing employees are removed or deactivated without someone having to remember to update the website separately.
- Role, department, and title changes update on the directory the moment they change in Entra ID.
How the connection works
Employee Directory for WordPress connects to Microsoft Entra ID through a dedicated sync add-on. Once configured, it authenticates against your organization’s Entra ID tenant and pulls employee profile data directly into your WordPress directory on a recurring basis, so your public or internal-facing directory reflects your actual Entra ID user base without anyone manually exporting or uploading files.
This is different from a one-time CSV import: a CSV export/import gets your directory populated once, but it’s a snapshot. An Entra ID sync keeps that snapshot current going forward.
What to check before setting this up
A few things worth confirming with your IT team before connecting Entra ID to a WordPress directory:
- Admin access to your Entra ID tenant. You’ll need permission to register an application or grant API access, which typically requires a Global Administrator or Application Administrator role.
- Which fields you want synced. Most setups sync name, title, department, and email at minimum, but Entra ID often holds more fields than you’ll want visible on a public directory, worth deciding what to expose before going live.
- Public vs. internal directory. If the directory is public-facing, confirm which employee data is appropriate to display externally versus what should stay internal-only.
Entra ID vs. Active Directory / LDAP
Entra ID is Microsoft’s cloud identity service. If your organization instead runs an on-premises Active Directory server or another LDAP-based directory, that’s a different connection method, covered in our Active Directory & LDAP sync guide. Some organizations run both (a hybrid setup), in which case which one to sync from depends on where your authoritative employee data actually lives.
Not sure Employee Directory is the right fit at all? See our comparison of employee directory plugins for WordPress by organization size and use case.
Getting started
Employee Directory’s core plugin handles CSV import/export and the full directory, org chart, and search experience out of the box. Microsoft Entra ID sync is available as an add-on for organizations that want the connection to stay live automatically rather than re-importing on a schedule.