Meet our team page: what to include, how to write the bios, and the consent question nobody asks

Every organisation eventually writes a "meet our team" page, and most of them go wrong in the same two places: the bios read like CVs, and nobody decided what happens when someone leaves.

This article sets out how to build one that is useful and stays accurate: what the page is for, who to include, what each profile needs, how to write a bio, the consent question behind every staff photograph, accessibility, and the maintenance routine. It is general information, not legal advice.

A team page is the public face of a structure you already keep internally, and the two should agree. See how New Dynamics org charts keep reporting lines and roles current in one place.

What the page is actually for

Three different jobs, and they want three different pages:

• Reassurance for a customer. Who will I be dealing with, and do they know what they are doing? This page wants names, roles, expertise and a way to make contact.
• Recruitment. What is it like to work here? This page wants a wider cross-section of people, real voices, and more than the leadership team.
• Navigation for colleagues and partners. Who owns what? This page wants completeness and current job titles above all.

Most pages try to do all three and end up doing none. Pick the main job, serve the others with a link.

Who to include

The decision that actually matters is not "everyone or just leadership". It is: can you keep it current?

• Everyone is the friendliest option and the hardest to maintain. It works where headcount is stable and you have a reliable leaver process.
• The leadership team plus the people customers deal with is the usual compromise. It answers the customer question and is smaller to maintain.
• A rotating selection ("some of the people you will work with") sidesteps the completeness problem, but only if the page says that is what it is.

Whatever you choose, be honest about it on the page. A page headed "our team" that shows eight of forty people invites the obvious question.

One thing to settle first: nobody should feel obliged to appear. More on that below.

What each profile should contain

1. Name, spelled as the person spells it, with pronunciation help if they want it.
2. Current job title, matching the one in your internal records rather than a version invented for the website.
3. What they actually do, in one or two sentences, in the language a customer would use.
4. How to reach them, or a clear statement that enquiries go to a central address. Publishing individual work email addresses is a decision, not a default.
5. One human detail, offered voluntarily. This is what makes the page readable and what most people quietly enjoy.

Optional, and only if the person wants it: pronouns, professional registration or qualifications where they matter to the reader, languages spoken, a link to a professional profile.

Writing a bio that is not a CV

The failure mode is a paragraph of career history nobody outside the company can use.

• Lead with what they do for the reader, not where they worked before.
• Two or three sentences. If leadership bios need more, put the longer version on a separate page.
• Use plain words. "Runs the service desk and answers the phone before nine" beats "spearheads operational excellence".
• Keep the human detail specific and small. A sport, an instrument, a bad joke. Avoid the things that reveal more than the person intended.
• Let people write their own, then edit lightly. A house style is worth having; a house voice that erases everyone is not.
• Do not invent anything, including the length of someone's experience.

A quick test: read the bio aloud to the person. If they wince, rewrite it.

Photographs, and the consent question nobody asks

A staff photograph on a public website is personal data, and the organisation needs a lawful basis for publishing it. In most cases where the photo is optional, that basis is consent, and consent is where team pages go wrong.

The ICO's guidance on keeping employment records sets out the standard. The UK GDPR "sets a high standard for consent, and people must have a genuine choice over how you use their information". Consent must be:

• "freely given";
• "specific";
• "informed";
• "unambiguous"; and
• "expressed by a clear affirmative action (ie, using an opt-in)".

And, crucially for a website: "it must be as easy for someone to withdraw their consent as to give it."

The ICO also names the problem with consent at work directly. It "may be difficult for you to rely on consent" because "as an employer, you will generally be in a position of power over your workers". Workers "may fear adverse consequences and may feel they have no choice but to agree", and "in such circumstances, consent is not considered freely given". The guidance says employers "should avoid relying on consent unless you are confident you can demonstrate it is freely given", which means giving someone "the option to say 'no' without fear of a penalty being imposed" and allowing them "to withdraw their consent at any time".

In practice, for a team page:

• Ask, in writing, for this specific use. A photo taken for an internal directory was not consented for the public website.
• Make no visibly an option. If declining has to be explained to a manager, it is not freely given.
• Say how to withdraw, to whom, and how quickly the page will be updated. Then honour it.
• Offer an alternative (name and role without a photo, or an illustration) so that saying no does not mean being left out.
• Keep a record of who agreed to what, and when.

Check with your own data protection lead about the basis your organisation relies on; this is general information rather than advice about your circumstances.

Accessibility and the small technical details

GOV.UK's publishing guidance on images is a usable standard for a team page.

• Avoid images with text in them: it "makes it harder for some users to understand the image". Put names in text, not baked into the photo.
• Do not use images alone to provide information, doing so "will exclude users who cannot see or access the image". The name and role must exist as text next to the picture, not only in the file.
• Name the person in the caption and describe the image in the body where it carries information, describing it "as though there is no image on the page".
• Do not use colour alone to convey information, such as colour-coded departments with no label.

Two more that matter on a page full of faces: use consistent image dimensions so the layout does not jump, and compress the photos. A team page is usually the heaviest page on a small site.

Leavers, joiners and promotions

This is what actually decides whether the page survives contact with reality.

• Put removal in the leaver checklist, with a named owner and a deadline of the leaving date. Nothing dates a company faster than a smiling former colleague.
• Put addition in the induction checklist, with the photo and bio collected in the first fortnight while enthusiasm is high.
• Put job titles in the promotion process, because the website is the last place anyone thinks to update.
• Diary one review a quarter and treat it as a five-minute check, not a project.

A page that lists people who have left is not just untidy. It is inaccurate personal data, and someone who has left can ask for their information to be removed.

Five common mistakes

• Leadership only, on a page headed "our team". Say who is shown.
• Job titles that exist nowhere else. "Chief happiness officer" helps nobody find the right person.
• Bios written by one person in one voice. The page reads as a brochure rather than a team.
• Photos taken in three different styles over six years. One shoot, or one agreed standard, and retake them together.
• No owner. If nobody owns the page, it is out of date within a year, and every fix becomes an argument.

A meet-our-team template

Page heading: Meet the team

One line saying who is shown: "The people you will work with day to day" / "Our leadership team" / "Everyone at [organisation]".

For each person

• Name
• Job title as it appears in our records
• One or two sentences on what they do, written for the reader
• Contact route, or a note that enquiries go to a central address
• One human detail, offered voluntarily
• Photograph, where the person has opted in

Footer: how to contact the team generally, and who to tell about an error on this page.

Internal: page owner, review date, consent record location, removal step in the leaver checklist.

Frequently asked questions

What should a meet our team page include?

For each person: their name, current job title, one or two sentences on what they actually do in the reader's language, a contact route or a note that enquiries go to a central address, one voluntary human detail, and a photograph where the person has agreed to one. For the page as a whole: a line saying who is shown, a general contact route, and an owner.

How do you write a good staff bio?

Two or three sentences, leading with what the person does for the reader rather than their career history, in plain words, with one small specific human detail. Let people draft their own and edit lightly, so the page sounds like a team rather than a brochure. Invent nothing, including years of experience.

Do you need consent to put employee photos on a website?

Where the photograph is published on the basis of consent, the ICO's standard applies: consent must be freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous and given by a clear affirmative action, and it must be as easy to withdraw as to give. The ICO warns that employers are generally in a position of power over workers, so consent is not freely given if someone fears consequences for refusing. Ask specifically for this use, allow people to decline without penalty, and act on withdrawals. This is general information, not legal advice.

Should you include everyone on a team page?

Only if you can keep it current. Listing everyone is the friendliest option and the hardest to maintain; leadership plus customer-facing staff is the usual compromise. Whichever you choose, say on the page who is shown, so a partial list does not look like an accident.

What do you do when someone leaves?

Remove them, and make that a step in the leaver checklist with a named owner and the leaving date as the deadline. A page listing people who have left is inaccurate personal information as well as a bad look, and a former employee can ask for their details to be removed.

How often should a team page be updated?

Whenever someone joins, leaves or changes role, plus a five-minute check once a quarter to catch what slipped. If the page needs a project to bring it up to date, it was built to the wrong size.

Your next step: make the page owned

1. Decide which of the three jobs the page is mainly doing, and say on the page who is shown.
2. Ask for photo consent in writing, for this specific use, with an easy way to decline or withdraw.
3. Add removal to the leaver checklist and collection to the induction checklist.
4. Name an owner and a quarterly review date.

For the wider question of what employee information you hold, publish and keep, read and download our employee data protection guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.

Want roles, reporting lines and job titles current in one place, so the website is not the last thing to find out? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current team page. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.