How to Write and Keep 1-on-1 Meeting Notes (with Examples)

Who are meeting notes written for?

Meeting notes (also called meeting records or meeting sheets) fall into 2 kinds depending on who reads them. One is notes on regular 1-on-1s (recurring individual meetings), read by the manager and the team member. The other is records submitted to HR under company rules, such as for performance review meetings and coaching meetings, which HR and future managers also read.

Notes the two of you read are written to carry the last conversation into the next one, so each 1-on-1 starts from what you decided. In KAKEAI's survey of 10,000 employees in Japan, 6.2% named "My manager doesn't remember what we talked about before" as a problem in meetings. Of these people, 26.4% feel their meetings lead to results, below the 31.9% for all respondents. People who feel their manager doesn't remember past conversations are less likely to feel results.

KAKEAI does not recommend that HR read the content of regular 1-on-1 notes. If team members know HR will read them, they tend to choose topics that are safe to be read, and managers tend to write only what is safe to be read. Notes meant to help two people pick up where they left off turn into notes written for others to see. If something must be submitted to HR, it helps to limit it to the date, topic headings, and what was decided.

That said, some workplaces have company rules that require regular 1-on-1 notes to be submitted to HR. To find out what must be submitted and how much, read your company's work rules and also check with HR. If your workplace requires the team member's own words to be submitted, tell your team member at the start of the meeting.

When the survey asked how often people meet with their manager, the most common answer was "once every six months," at 21.7%. Of those who answered "once every six months," 69.8% discuss performance evaluations in their meetings.

If you meet twice a year, the next time you reread the notes is six months later. By then, even the manager who wrote them reads them like someone who wasn't in the room. Phrases like "the usual issue," "what we discussed the other day," or "no particular issues" don't convey what actually happened.

Start your meeting notes with 5 items

Whether the notes are for the two of you or for HR, start by writing them with the following 5 items. If your company has a set form, fit these 5 items into its fields.

1. When, and what kind of meeting. Write the date, length, who else attended, and the purpose (regular 1-on-1, coaching, review, a request from the team member, and so on).
2. The team member's own words. Don't summarize. Write what they said, as they said it, in quotation marks.
3. What the manager said. Write it exactly as you said it, and don't write anything you didn't say.
4. What was decided. Write who will do what by when. Include what the manager agreed to do.
5. What is still open. Write the topics carried over to next time and when they will be decided.

Here is an example of notes on a regular 1-on-1 (notes for the two of you) with a team member who handles customer inquiries:

If something must be submitted to HR about the same session, write 3 things in a separate document: the date, the topic heading, and what was decided.

There are 4 points to keep in mind for every item:

• Don't leave out who does what. Instead of writing only "will consider," write who will do what.
• Use dates. With "next week" or "sometime this month," a reader six months later can't tell when that was.
• Write what you saw and heard in separate sentences from your own opinions or assessments.
• Don't write "no particular issues." A later reader can't tell whether you asked and found none, or didn't ask.

Some advice says all meeting notes are better written in one shared template, but this page does not recommend it. If you write records for different readers on the same sheet, content meant for the two of you ends up reaching HR. The 5 items can also be expanded or trimmed to fit the purpose of the meeting.

Example meeting notes for different situations

Which items you write in detail depends on the purpose of the meeting. Here are examples for 4 situations.

A coaching meeting where you asked for an improvement (a record for HR)

Here is the sentence before rewriting:

"Low awareness" is the manager's assessment, not something that happened. Future managers and HR can't tell what happened, and the team member can't tell what to improve. Rewrite it like this:

How the company uses coaching meeting records afterward is not something the manager decides alone. Read the work rules and check with HR.

A meeting where you delivered review results (a record for HR)

In performance review notes, write not only the rating but also the reasons you gave.

When the team member tells you about a transfer or a job they'd like

Here is the sentence before rewriting:

"Will handle it" can make a future manager think the previous manager promised a transfer. For things outside your authority, write that you heard it as a wish, and who you will tell and when.

When you hand over meeting notes to the next manager after a transfer

What the next manager wants to know is what is still ongoing and what the previous manager agreed to do but hasn't finished. We recommend not handing over the 1-on-1 notes you and your team member have kept as they are, but rereading them with your team member and adding these 2 items:

Before handing them over, say something like this to your team member:

What not to write in meeting notes, and what to check first

There are 3 things not to write in meeting notes: judgments about someone's character, guesses without evidence, and promises outside your authority. This applies to notes for the two of you, too.

In KAKEAI's survey, 22.9% of people discuss "physical and mental well-being" in meetings with their manager. "Personal life" was 16.4%, and "relationships" 31.1%.

Records of 300,000 1-on-1 sessions extracted from Kakeai, KAKEAI's 1-on-1 service, capture the topic and the expectation of the manager that employees chose before each 1-on-1. For the "physical and mental well-being" topic, "I want you to listen" was chosen 17.4% of the time. For the "personal life" topic it was 21.8%, and for the "work progress and approach" topic 7.5%. For the "physical and mental well-being" and "personal life" topics, "I want you to listen" is chosen more often than for "work progress and approach."

If something a team member shared because they wanted to be heard ended up, without their knowledge, in a document HR reads, it would be no surprise if they started choosing what to say in the next meeting. Here is what to check before writing, and what not to write.

• Health, illness, and family circumstances. Don't decide on your own whether to record them or whom to tell. Ask what your team member wants, then read the work rules and check with HR. Don't write the names of conditions or anything that reads like a diagnosis. If you are worried about their health, connect them with occupational health (such as a company doctor) or medical professionals.
• Judgments about character, and guesses without evidence. Don't write "passive," "not a team player," or "likely to quit." Write what happened and the team member's own words.
• Things said about people who weren't there. When complaints about a coworker come up, write them so it's clear who said what, as in "The team member said that ..." Don't carry anything that could involve harassment alone; connect it to the company's reporting channel and HR.
• Promises outside your authority. For promotions, raises, and transfers, write "heard as a wish."

When health or family circumstances come up, say something like this on the spot:

Avoid promising flatly on the spot, "I won't write it down." Company rules may require that it be reported to HR. Until you have checked with HR, don't write the content; only note the date you will check.

Notes are good enough if they focus on the work, what was decided, and deadlines. When the survey asked about topics in meetings with a manager, the most common choice was "specific work," at 76.7%.

Some advice says it's best to write down everything in the order it was said, but this page does not recommend it. Long notes are hard to read through, and they end up including things the team member would not want kept.

How to keep meeting notes: confirm with your team member, then store them in the agreed place

Write meeting notes the same day. Confirm the content with your team member, then store them in the agreed place. If you write them all at the end of the period, you end up relying on memory, and the notes tend to be in your words rather than your team member's.

At the start of the meeting, tell your team member that you will keep notes and who will read them. Describe who reads them according to the company rules you confirmed with HR. For regular 1-on-1s, you might say:

For meetings where company rules require you to submit a record to HR (reviews, coaching, and so on), you might say:

In KAKEAI's survey, 9.3% named "I can't speak honestly because I worry about how it will affect my evaluation or how I'm seen" as a problem in meetings.

If people don't know what is written and who reads it, they are unlikely to feel safe talking. If you tell them at the start of the meeting and read the notes together in the last 5 minutes, your team member can see for themselves what will be kept. When you read them together, you might say:

Meeting notes are not a document that proves agreement. Where the two of you see things differently, leave it that way, written so it's clear whose view is whose.

Store notes for the two of you separately from records for HR. For each, it helps to keep one place per team member and add to it in date order. If you don't know the company rules, ask HR something like this:

How to tell whether your meeting notes are working

Writing the notes isn't enough to tell whether they're working. When you read them with your team member, and the next time you open them, look back on these 3 points:

• Were your team member's words written the way they said them?
• Were you able to start the next meeting by reading "what was decided" and "what is still open" together?
• Do you and your team member have the same understanding of who reads the notes?

Based on its experience supporting more than 3 million 1-on-1s and the results of its survey of 10,000 employees, KAKEAI believes the quality of a meeting is judged by the action that follows. Meeting notes, too, are best judged not by whether every field was filled in, but by whether "what was decided" was carried out before the next meeting.