After years as a free-wheeling,fast-growing startup, Google is trying to adjust to theresponsibilities and realities of being one of the world's mostpowerful companies. (Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg)

Google changed some policies on sexual misconduct afterthousands of employees walked out of their offices last week toprotest big payouts for executives accused of harassment and othermisbehavior.

The Alphabet Inc. unit is making arbitration optional for individual sexualharassment and sexual assault claims. It also pledged to providemore information to staff about such investigations and theoutcomes, and expand mandatory training on the issue, addressingsome of the issues workers asked for in staging the walkout.

Related: 5 questions to help guide the overhaul of yoursexual harassment policies

“Going forward, we will provide more transparency on how wehandle concerns. We'll give better support and care to the peoplewho raise them. And we will double down on our commitment to be arepresentative, equitable, and respectful workplace,” Google ChiefExecutive Officer Sundar Pichai wrote in a public message toemployees on Thursday.

The company is holding a town hall staff meeting on sexualharassment Thursday.

After years as a free-wheeling, fast-growing startup, Google is trying toadjust to the responsibilities and realities of being one of theworld's most powerful companies. That's happening externally, withincreased scrutiny by regulators and politicians, and internallywith reports and rising complaints about Google's permissiveculture when it comes to executive conduct and relationships withco-workers.

The changes are a step forward, but have some seriousshortcomings, said Freada Kapor Klein, a partner at Kapor Capitaland longtime advocate for diversity in tech.

“It hasn't ended arbitration, it's made it optional,” she said.The rule change also doesn't appear to extend to workplace racism,which women of color are just as likely to experience as sexism,Kapor Klein said.

The Google protest organizers last week demanded the end offorced arbitration in harassment and discrimination cases, whichrequires employees to resolve their dispute privately rather thanin court.

Mandatory arbitration clauses have come under harsh scrutiny asthe #metoo movement has gathered steam over the past year. InFebruary, the attorneys general of all 50 states issued a rarejoint letter urging legislation to ensure victims of sexualharassment have the option of a day in court. Some states,including California, this year passed laws that limit the use ofnon-disclosure agreements in sexual misconduct cases. TheCalifornia governor, however, vetoed a bill that would haverestricted arbitration.

Forced arbitration for harassment claims is still standardpractice at major employers, according to Orly Lobel, a labor andemployment law professor at the University of San Diego.

Last December, Microsoft Corp. announced that it had eliminatedmandatory arbitration clauses for sexual harassment claims amongits employees and was also advocating for federal legislation to dothe same across the workforce.

“Forced arbitration is one of the ills that we understand keepssexual harassment in place by concealing the nature of theallegations, and it is a completely one-sided system that favorscorporations,” said civil rights attorney Debra Katz, a partner atthe law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks. “If we as a society careabout eradicating sexual harassment, we need to continue topressure companies to get rid of these policies, because it's nothappening at either the court level or the legislative levelnow.”

Other worker demands included the creation of a single, clearsystem to anonymously report harassment and a promise that thechief diversity officer would report directly to the CEO.

Pichai committed to several of those changes, but a request tohave an employee representative appointed to the board was notaddressed. Instead, Google noted that its chief diversity officerprovides recommendations to the board through a committee.

Workers' advocates aren't convinced. The changes don't fullyextend to Google contractors, who make up a massive part of thecompany's workforce, said a spokesperson for the Tech WorkersCoalition, which represents employees and contractors fromdifferent tech companies. Google said it investigates whenever acontractor makes a complaint against a Google employee, and expectscontracting companies to do the same when a complaint is madeagainst a contractor.

Here's what Google is committed to:

• Making arbitration in sexual harassment and assault claimsoptional.
• Providing regular, detailed reports about the number ofharassment claims and whether they resulted in people beingfired.
• Publishing an internal guide to how harassment investigationswork at the company.
• More support for people reporting harassment, including theright to bring a colleague along with them to meetings with thehuman resources department.
• Managers will be expected to discourage “excessive” alcoholconsumption at work-related events.
• Skipping sexual harassment training will affect employees'performance reviews.

More ways to mitigate sexual harassment in theworkplace:

• HR's #MeToo dilemma: How much to say about firedemployees?
• Constructing a workplace environment that rejectssexual harassment
• How to avoid the pitfalls of a bad sexualharassment policy

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