Walmart boosts restrictions on US travel for staff and vendors

Walmart Inc. has tightened U.S. travel restrictions for its corporate employees and told its vendors not to visit its offices, updating rules it laid out just last week due to the accelerated spread of the coronavirus.

The world’s largest retailer said U.S. travel “should be extremely limited,” according to a memo distributed March 11 after normal business hours. All inter-office visits that require air travel are restricted, the memo said, and should be limited to essential operations like store visits only. In a separate memo, Walmart told its vast network of U.S. suppliers that visits to all its offices are now restricted and in-person meetings should only happen “if absolutely necessary.”

The latest moves go beyond the travel limits Walmart instituted March 5, which only restricted “less essential” travel related to conferences and trade shows. Limits on international travel announced that day are still in effect, Walmart said in the March 11 memo from Donna Morris, an executive vice president and chief people officer. The new guidelines are effective immediately and will last through the end of April, Morris said.

Walmart is also cracking down on the large group meetings it routinely holds in the various auditoriums it has near its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas. Such meetings are now “suspended,” the memo said, and will shift to virtual meeting technology. In-person meetings with suppliers and other businesses will now require approval from a Walmart vice president or above, Morris said.

The company also told employees to take precautions around their own personal travel, and said it’s increasing the cleaning of its offices, just as it’s boosting the scrubbing of its thousands of U.S. stores. On Tuesday, the retailer instituted an emergency leave policy to help allay employee concerns about the escalating coronavirus outbreak after a store associate tested positive for the illness.

“When possible, practice social distancing around the office,” the memo said. “Leaders may want to encourage their teams to start taking their laptops home each night out of an abundance of caution.”