Everyone in the office is expecting a raise. If you’re the boss, you can assume that everyone working for you wants more money. If you’re an employee, you’re expecting an increase at some point soon, right? It’s the way of the world.

I don’t believe in salary increases for the heck of it. The employer-employee relationship is about an exchange of value. One party delivers value, and the other party pays for it. The same amount of value shouldn’t cost more tomorrow than it does today in the absence of inflation (and we definitely have an absence of inflation).

Generally, experience translates into greater value. You do the same thing over and over and, hopefully, you do it better and faster. However, experience only continues to increase value for so long. Eventually, employees master the activity and doing it again and again has no impact.

So how do employees earn more money? How do employees deliver more value once they’ve maxed out on experience in a particular role?

One way to increase value is to take on additional responsibilities. That’s a terrific path to more money.

Another way to increase value is training. Experience, or on-the-job training, can only take you as far as you can get on your own or with help from those around you. You can often go further with training from experts outside of the firm.

We’ve increased the value of our people by enrolling employees in classes both online and off. We’ve brought in consultants to do training in the office. We’ve sent people to seminars and conferences. Training opportunities are abundant, and they frequently create value for your firm and for your employees. Sometimes we’ve had to be creative. We had an attorney who’d done it all. She’d been to NITA seminars and the ABA Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute. She’d maxed out on training.

What do you do with the highly trained employee who has tremendous experience? Find the next level. We sent her to comedy school. That took her public speaking to a much higher level. Sometimes it takes creativity to help people keep adding value.

You’ve got to seize control of employee development. If you don’t, you’re going to face the unpleasant situation where an employee expects more money, but he or she really doesn’t have more value to give. You don’t want to reach that point because if you do, you’ll either (1) reduce your margins by paying more for the same value or (2) start losing your best, most experienced people when you refuse to pay more. Keep developing your people, and you’ll keep growing your business. It’s a win-win plan that you’ve got to make happen.