Much has been written about the abysmal levels of employee engagement. According to Gallup, 30 percent of U.S. employees and 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged. For years, organizations have been scrambling to boost these numbers, and for good reason. Studies show that managers in particular contribute to about 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement across business units, but that engagement levels tend to fluctuate considerably from team to team, and individual to individual. This variance highlights an important factor many companies overlook—if employees aren’t made responsible for some level of their own engagement, all the efforts made by the organization will have limited impact. To some extent, engagement is a choice the employee will have to make. And while employers can influence this choice, ultimately it is up to the employee. In order to help employees choose to become engaged, managers can ensure that employees know what is expected of them, that they have the tools necessary to perform their jobs, and that there are robust feedback mechanisms in place to help employees know if they are performing well.