Motivating staff performance in an operant learning program for children.

The team worked with residential staff who ran a learning program for kids. They wanted staff to finish new tasks on time and follow teaching steps exactly.

The study tested three setups: baseline, public posting alone, and public posting plus one-dollar tokens. Staff names and scores went on a wall chart everyone could see.

Public posting plus the dollar tokens kept staff working at the highest level. Either part alone did less. The combo held steady even after the study ended.

Pomerleau et al. (1973) tried cash bonuses tied to patient gains in a psychiatric ward. They also saw big jumps when money matched real outcomes and staff got graphs.

Bacon-Prue et al. (1980) later used the same dollar-token-plus-posting trick to cut litter. Residents, not staff, earned the tokens, yet the package still won.

Green et al. (1975) swapped the setting to a first-grade class. Tokens flipped teacher comments from mostly negative to mostly positive, showing the tactic travels.

Together these papers build a line: small cash tokens paired with public feedback shape adult behavior across hospitals, schools, and group homes.

You can copy the package tomorrow. Post a simple wall chart with each staff member’s daily score and hand out a single dollar token when they hit goal. The cost is tiny, yet the 1974 data and later replications show large, lasting gains in task completion and treatment fidelity. Try it for any new procedure you need done right and on time.