Google recently settled an age discrimination lawsuit requiring wide-ranging changes in its HR practices, including in recruiting and employee surveys. The lawsuit may be unique in the management changes it seeks, and may point to the potential impact discrimination lawsuits have on hiring and firing.

In the 2015 complaint, the Google age discrimination lawsuit alleged that the median age at Google was 29 compared to 42 for U.S. workers. The lawsuit claimed Google favored people under 40 in its hiring. Lead plaintiff Cheryl Fillekes, who has a Ph.D. in geophysics, was invited to four separate interviews for different jobs by Google starting at the age of 47, but she was never hired. She blamed age discrimination. The case was filed in federal court in California.

Google's median age was based on third-party data. Tech firms will detail gender, race and ethnic makeup of their workforces in their diversity reports, but do not reveal employee age ranges.

The federal court agreement settled the age discrimination class action case for $11 million. More than 200 parties were part of it. It also required Google to train employees and managers on age-based bias and create a subcommittee in its recruiting operations to focus on age diversity in its engineering positions. Google will have to ensure its marketing reflects age diversity, and departing employees will be surveyed about potential discrimination.

Settlement could raise awareness Daniel Low, the Washington-based attorney representing Fillekes, said the training and the survey requirements "are intended to raise awareness of the issue of age discrimination to help reduce bias against highly experienced tech workers who struggle to get jobs." The subcommittee is designed to help ensure "that the hiring process does not structurally disfavor older applicants, and the more diverse marketing materials are intended to encourage a broader applicant pool," Low said. Scott Edward Cole, an employment attorney in Oakland, Calif., called the Google settlement unusual and creative, and praised the parties for it. "What is unusual about this settlement is that the injunctive relief comes in so many different forms," he said. "Ageism at companies like Google is an enormous problem, and oftentimes so insidious as to evade legal remedies," Cole said. This settlement "gives me hope that big tech is starting to take these issues more seriously," he said. William Kerr, a business administration professor at Harvard Business School and co-director of Harvard's Managing the Future of Work initiative, said, generally, these types of court interventions "are as effective as top management wants them to be." In some settings, "the programs are purely for show and have no material consequence," Kerr said. And in other settings, "when coupled with strong management determination, they can be a sizable lever for change," he said. An organization like Google can accomplish virtually anything if it really wants to. William KerrBusiness administration professor at Harvard Business School The firm's future outcomes as well as released data on key metrics "will show how serious" the firm is about the issue, Kerr said. "An organization like Google can accomplish virtually anything if it really wants to," he said. Patrick Button, an assistant professor of economics at Tulane University, and a researcher on age discrimination, said he can see the settlement helping to somewhat remedy the age discrimination problem. It may "reduce ageism by creating an awareness of sensitivity around ageism and age discrimination," he said. "Ageism is pretty widespread, and a lot of people don't realize that it's harmful and illegal," Button said. "I don't think these changes will make a big dent in the problem, but changing workplace attitudes and practices may help." In an email, a Google spokeswoman pointed out, as noted in a motion approving the settlement, that the firm denies and continues to dispute that it intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff in the case and others who joined it. The firm said that it does not discriminate against applicants on any basis. Cascade Insights, a B2B tech sector marketing firm, analyzed nearly 10 million LinkedInprofiles in its research of ageism by industry. It found that employees over the age of 35 are in the minority in the tech industry.