It shouldn’t come as a surprise that employee engagement levels are in a slump. According to the most recent Gallup numbers, only 32 percent of employees say they are actively engaged at their jobs, and this figure hasn’t moved much over the past five years. There are an overwhelming number of solutions for leaders looking to bolster engagement, beginning with organizational assessment programs. But some experts are beginning to think that paradigm might be flawed. The practice of surveying employees to identify what they don’t like and then spending the next year trying to fix it might be getting in the way of actually boosting engagement. At present, in most organizations, employees have very little stake in their own engagement, and little to no voice in their working environment. A periodic survey cannot be the sole source of input managers rely on to gauge their employee engagement; feedback should be a more continuous process. Employees must feel free to provide input, both good and bad, without the fear of retribution, if they are truly going to become engaged.