A recruitment firm is marking its diamond anniversary by getting all its staff to carry out 60 acts of kindness throughout the year.

HR GO, which was launched in Dartford in 1957, employs about 300 staff in 36 offices across the UK, with its head office in Ashford.

The £90 million turnover company is Kent’s oldest recruitment firm still in independent family ownership, with chairman Jack Parkinson the son of late founder Betty Parkison.

He said: “We are celebrating our 60th anniversary by looking outwards to the communities where we are based and which have contributed to our success.

“My mother was keen to help local charities and, for example, supported Dartford Scouts.

“I’m encouraging our teams in Ashford, Canterbury, Chatham, Dartford, Folkestone and Ramsgate and across the UK to do their bit for local people and good causes.

“Some acts of kindness with be small, others on a larger scale, but all will be an important contribution to their community.

“Although we have set this target for our anniversary year, I’m hoping that the volunteering culture will be so deeply embedded in the company that our staff will be happy to continue the Kindness Campaign well into 2018 and beyond.”

HR GO was founded after Betty Parkinson quit her job in London following a train crash which killed 90 people and injured 173 others.

She had caught a train from London Bridge Station but it lost power after Hither Green when operators turned off electricity because the train behind had ploughed into another outside Lewisham.

Warned to stop using the trains by her husband, she found a temporary role at Dartford Paper Mills and when the firm needed more staff, Betty recruited nine people.

This success fuelled led her to start her own business, successively known as Parkinson Staff Bureau, PSB and later HR GO.

Her son Jack later expanded the business through a series of joint ventures nationwide and opened branches in many parts of the UK and an operation in Poland.