Return on Assets Employed (ROAE) is the ratio that shows how many dollars of net income a company gets from every dollar of assets used in the business. ROAE is generally based on fixed assets. This is very similar to Return on Net Assets (RONA), except RONA usually adds inventory, accounts receivable and working capital into the pool of assets.
Both ROAE and RONA are particularly important in asset intensive industries (for example, oil refining and bulk chemical production) where the efficient choice and use of expensive production equipment is key to profitability. Two other similar measures, Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) and Return on Assets (ROA) take a broader view of the assets and capital against which the return should be calculated.