A new personnel recruitment agency was launched in Hampshire earlier this month.

While there is nothing new about this - since the agency boom in the mid-1990s it seemed that a recruitment agency is launched every other week - there is something different about Drive Personnel.

Opened on August 2, Drive Personnel recruits temporary and permanent staff within the driving, industrial and office sectors.

Peter Andrews, recruitment and sales director, explained the philosophy behind Drive Personnel:

"I have worked in the recruitment sector for the past 13 years and I have seen various changes throughout that time, some of which I personally and ethically do not agree with.

"In general the recruitment sector has become very parasitic - it treats its employees as a commodity and a way of making quick money. Employees are accessed for their current abilities and are pigeonholed for that type of work, giving little or no scope for that person to change, grow or develop.

"The long and short of it is that we have a significant amount of de-motivated temporary workers out there who really treat recruitment agencies as a necessary evil.

"This lack of motivation is passed onto the agency customer and results in a complete lack of customer service.

"Our aim is to treat the staff as they wish to be treated themselves, in turn get the motivation levels where they should be and as a result yield increased productivity from our staff."

Great customer service is a nice idea, but implementing it is not always that easy, as Andy Burton, operations director for Drive Personnel explained.

"With any great idea it generally has to be simple to work. Our main business model is not rocket science - if we have a happy and motivated workforce this will result in better service for our customers," he said.

"In summary, people are our biggest asset, so let's look after them. This is a simple concept but hard to implement and this is how we address it.

"Firstlylistening to the prospective employee to understand their existing skills, determine what sort of work they are after, and ensuring that their skills and work match. If they do not match we look at ways of getting them to that standard. This can be achieved in a number of ways - mentoring, training or even just getting further work experience.

"We would rather turn away business than put a person in a job they don't have the necessary skill set to do or feel uncomfortable doing.

"Once the employee has been placed in a company, a constant review process is actioned to ensure that the employee is comfortable in that position and that the customer is happy with the level and quality of work being carried out. If any party is unhappy then we will work to resolve those issues quickly."