Employ uniform floor covering element around island (7)
I believe the answer is:
utilise
'employ uniform floor' is the definition.
'utilise' can be an answer for 'employ' (synonyms). I am not certain of the 'uniform floor' bit.
'covering element around island' is the wordplay.
'covering element' becomes 'utile' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'island' becomes 'is' (geographical abbreviation).
'utile' enclosing 'is' is 'UTILISE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for utilise that I've seen before include "Put to use" , "Employ, make use of" , "Find application or task for" , "Employ, do something with" , "Put into service, find application for" .)