I have seen it used in some financial situations and when I worked for a business owned by venture capitalists, but I have never seen it operationally used in a mainstream UK business

Probably the tricky bit with this idea is how to define "an employee".

A strict definition would exclude outsourced work, contractors, consultants and freelancers. And I would imagine that, in manufacturing - and especially in textiles manufacturing where so much production is outsourced to overseas sites - the figures could be misleading and, indeed, manipulated if one wanted to inflate the R/E number, by shifting production to an outsourced site.

And, of course, once one moves into overseas outsourcing for cost reasons (and, again, particularly in textiles manufacturing) you run up against Modern Slavery legislation, sourcing validation and, of course, the challenges that business are now waking up to when it comes to the global market (one narcissistic megalomaniac with a chip on his shoulder and your "just in time" supply chain is toast).