Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Hands-on competence
35% weight
Check hands-on teardown speed and accuracy: manual disassembly of laptops, CRTs, LCD backlights and UPS units, plus sorting ferrous, non-ferrous, boards and plastics to grade specifications.
Evidence to listen for
Names the equipment, materials, and tolerances they work to
Can describe a job start to finish without hand-waving the hard parts
Holds the tickets, licences, or certifications the work requires, and they are current
Knows what they are not qualified to touch
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot describe the work concretely; lacks required tickets or licences.
2
Needs Improvement
Basic familiarity; needs supervision on routine tasks.
3
Satisfactory
Competent on standard work; slower or unsure on unfamiliar jobs.
4
Very Good
Skilled and independent across the normal range of the role.
5
Excellent
Names throughput per shift, distinguishes board grades and copper yields, and describes safely extracting lithium pouch cells without puncturing them.
02
Evaluation factor
Safety discipline
30% weight
Probe knowledge of R2v3 or e-Stewards requirements, RCRA universal waste rules, mercury lamp and battery segregation, thermal event response, PPE, lockout tagout on shredders and granulators.
Evidence to listen for
Treats procedure as protection rather than paperwork
Can describe a time they stopped work and why
Knows the specific hazards of this trade and the controls for each
Reports near misses instead of hiding them
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Casual about safety; describes shortcuts with pride.
2
Needs Improvement
Follows procedure when watched; cannot name the hazards that matter.
3
Satisfactory
Sound safety habits; less certain on unfamiliar hazards.
4
Very Good
Safety is instinctive; can describe stopping work over a real concern.
5
Excellent
Cites specific focus materials handling steps, describes a real battery fire or smoke event and the extinguishing media and reporting that followed.
03
Evaluation factor
Fault finding
20% weight
Assess triage judgement: deciding reuse versus recycle, testing units for function, tracing why a shredder jams or an eddy current separator misses fractions.
Evidence to listen for
Has a method for narrowing a fault rather than swapping parts
Reads schematics, manuals, or error codes and acts on them
Knows when to escalate rather than guess
Can describe a fault that took real work to find
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Parts-swapper; no diagnostic method.
2
Needs Improvement
Fixes symptoms; cannot explain how they found the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Solid on familiar faults; less structured on new ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic method with a real hard-fault story.
5
Excellent
Walks through diagnostic steps on a jammed granulator or failed load test, explaining root cause rather than just clearing the blockage.
04
Evaluation factor
Reliability and conduct
15% weight
Look for evidence of chain of custody discipline: serial capture, asset tags, sanitisation records under NIST 800-88, weight reconciliation, and clean audit results with downstream vendors.
Evidence to listen for
Turns up, on time, prepared
Handles shift work, callouts, or travel as the role requires
Documents work so the next person can pick it up
Deals with customers or site staff professionally
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Unreliable attendance; unprofessional on site.
2
Needs Improvement
Inconsistent; documentation is an afterthought.
3
Satisfactory
Dependable; paperwork is adequate.
4
Very Good
Consistently reliable, documents well, professional with customers.
5
Excellent
Describes maintaining verifiable data destruction logs and passing a certification audit without nonconformities, with steady attendance across shift patterns.
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