Who should take notes in an HR investigation or termination meeting, and what belongs in them?

A trained second person, usually HR or another neutral staff member, should take the notes, and the manager at the center of the matter should not. Notes should hold facts, quotes, times, questions asked and documents shown, not opinions or labels. Plan on the notes being read later by the employee, an agency or a court.

Most small employers learn this the hard way. A meeting goes badly, someone remembers it differently three months later, and the only record is a manager’s recollection. This guide covers who writes, what goes in, how long to keep it, and what an employee can ask to see. It gives general information, not legal advice for your situation.

Why does a second person in the room matter?

Because two people hear the same meeting, and a written record can settle which version is accurate. California’s harassment prevention regulation expects employers to run impartial and timely investigations with documentation, and its text requires a complaint process that ensures “Impartial and timely investigations by qualified personnel” and documentation and tracking for reasonable progress, per 2 CCR 11023(b)(4). A note taker is the simplest way to meet the documentation part.

The same logic applies to a termination meeting, even though no regulation tells you to bring a witness. A manager delivering news alone is a witness to their own conduct. A second person can confirm what was said, what the employee asked, and what was handed over, which matters if the employee later says they were given no reason or were threatened. The termination documentation guide explains the rest of the file, and the workplace investigation entry defines the process.

The second reason is fairness to the employee. Notes show that a complaint or concern was heard, that the person was told what was alleged and given a chance to respond, and that a decision followed from evidence. Those are the elements the regulation describes: a “fair, timely, and thorough investigation” that gives all parties due process, per 11023(b)(7).

Who should take the notes, and who should not?

Choose the note taker for neutrality and training, in that order. Good choices and poor ones:

• Good choice: an HR professional who is not the investigator, or the investigator’s trained assistant.
• Good choice: a senior staff member from another team who has agreed to confidentiality and has no stake in the outcome.
• Good choice: an outside investigator or attorney, for serious or high-profile matters.
• Avoid: the manager at the center of the complaint, or anyone who reports to that manager.
• Avoid: a friend of the employee or the complainant, in either direction.
• Avoid: anyone who will repeat what they heard in the hallway.

On outside help, the California Civil Rights Department’s harassment guide says external investigators must be licensed private investigators or attorneys, and that for internal investigations HR is often the person, per the agency’s guide, which dates from 2017 under its former name. If you are a small team with no HR staff, borrow a neutral person from another team or hire a fractional HR professional for the meeting.

Brief the note taker before the meeting. Tell them their job is to record, not to speak, and that they should flag anything they could not hear. After the meeting, the note taker and the lead should compare notes within a day, while memory is fresh, and sign and date the final version.

What belongs in the notes, and what stays out?

Write what happened, not what you think about it. The California Civil Rights Department guide asks investigators to “carefully and objectively document” interviews, findings and steps taken. Include:

• The date, start and end time, location, and who attended.
• The questions asked, in order, and the answers given in the person’s own words where possible.
• Direct quotes for anything contested, marked as quotes.
• Every document shown or handed over, listed by name and date.
• What the employee was told about next steps, and the date for them.
• Any request the employee made, such as a copy of the file or time to respond.

Leave out opinions, speculation, labels and guesses about motive. “He was visibly angry” should read “He raised his voice and said ‘this is retaliation.'” Skip words like “liar,” “hostile” and “unstable.” Do not write legal conclusions either, since the same guide advises investigators to find facts and not decide the law. Do not paste in gossip from outside the meeting.

Handwritten notes are acceptable. The guide lists handwritten or typed notes, witness-signed statements and audio recording as workable methods, as long as the information is reliable and not altered. If you type up the notes, keep the handwritten original too. Do not edit after the fact to tidy the language. If you need to correct something, add a dated addendum.

Are HR meeting notes private?

Assume not. California’s attorney-client privilege covers confidential communications between a client and a lawyer, per Evidence Code 952. I found nothing in sections 952 to 954 that extends the privilege to notes taken by a non-attorney HR person, so write as if the other side will read them.

Even a lawyer-led investigation has limits. In Wellpoint Health Networks v. Superior Court (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 110, the court held that an attorney’s investigation of a discrimination complaint can be protected, and that an employer which relies on the adequacy of the investigation as a defense puts it “directly at issue” and can waive the protection. The court said an employer cannot have it both ways. The practical lesson: if you plan to defend a decision by pointing to the investigation, expect the file to be opened.

Attorney work product has its own rule under Code of Civil Procedure 2018.030, but it protects an attorney’s writings, not an HR professional’s. That is one reason serious matters sometimes go to outside counsel. For routine meetings, assume discoverability and write accordingly.

How long should you keep the notes, and what can an employee ask for?

Keep them at least four years, and longer if a complaint is pending. Government Code 12946 makes it unlawful to fail to keep personnel records for a minimum of four years, and once a verified complaint is filed, all records must be kept until it is finally resolved. Labor Code 1198.5(c) sets a separate minimum of three years after termination for personnel records. I have not confirmed a state regulation that restates the four-year rule, so cite the statute. Store notes in the investigation file, with limited access, and not in the employee’s general file.

An employee can ask to see their own records. Under Labor Code 1198.5, a current or former employee can inspect and receive a copy of personnel records relating to performance or to any grievance concerning the employee, and the employer must respond within 30 calendar days of a written request. A late or missing response carries a $750 penalty. The statute excludes records of an investigation of a possible criminal offense. Whether a workplace investigation file counts as a personnel record is not settled by anything I could read, so do not promise secrecy.

Separately, Labor Code 432 entitles an employee to a copy of anything they signed relating to getting or keeping the job, on request. That is why a signed acknowledgment of a termination meeting should be one the employee is comfortable receiving. Tell managers: nothing goes in the notes you would not want read aloud. The personnel file glossary entry has the basics.

Should a person or an AI tool take the notes?

A person, for any meeting that matters. Recording a confidential conversation without the consent of all parties is a crime under Penal Code 632, with a fine up to $2,500 per violation and up to a year in jail, and section 637.2 lets an injured person sue for the greater of $5,000 per violation or three times actual damages. The statute covers recording devices, and a tool that records audio is a recording device.

AI notetakers add a second problem, which is that they keep a transcript you may not control. A transcript is not a note either. Notes are selective and neutral. A transcript captures every interruption and every aside, and it can be read as an admission. Our guide on AI notetakers in HR meetings explains consent, vendor retention and which meetings to keep them out of.

If you do record with everyone’s consent, say so at the start, on the record, and keep the recording under the same retention rule. A written note from a person is still the better working document. Retaliation is a separate risk after any complaint, so read the 90-day retaliation presumption before the meeting, and see the PIP guide if the conversation is about performance.

What should I do this week?

Adopt this one-page checklist and hand it to every manager who sits in on a sensitive meeting:

• Name the note taker before the meeting, and confirm they are neutral.
• Write the date, times, attendees and documents shown.
• Record facts and quotes only, with no opinions or labels.
• Sign and date the notes within one business day, and file them.
• Keep them for at least four years, and longer if a complaint is open.
• Do not record unless every person agrees on the record.

If you want a second read of how your managers document performance and termination meetings, book a free consult and I will go through your process with you.

The full complaint process is in how to run a workplace investigation in seven steps, and the separation steps are in a California offboarding checklist.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.

Data current as of September 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.