Our Story
It all started with three friends…
Childhood friends Alan Lazowski, Jeff Karp and Michael Harth grew up in a small town outside of Hartford, CT. Fast forward to 1981 and, in his senior year of college, Michael decided to start a valet parking business in San Diego, CA. He shared the idea with his two best friends who started their own valet businesses in Hartford and Boston.
By 2007, the three friends had formally merged their companies to form what is today's LAZ Parking. With the financial backing of Indigo, one of the world's largest parking firms, LAZ tripled in size in just over four years.
Today LAZ operates hundreds of thousands of parking spaces in thousands of locations across the country, including many of the original locations that started back in 1981.
More than three decades later, our founders and their original values continue to guide us. The combination of lifelong friendship and a people-first mindset is what keeps our mojo alive. With a laser-focused mission to "create opportunities for our employees and value for our clients" we are passionately committed to living up to "The LAZ Way."
Benefits
Employee Assistance Programs
Wellness
Discounts
Parking
Commuter Benefits
Parties, Events and More
How We Roll: The LAZ Way
We're people who care about people. We don't just say it, we do it. Our company's mission is to "create opportunities for our employees and value for our clients" and, as you can see, employees come first.
It's one thing to give people a job. It's another to focus on creating opportunities for personal growth once people are hired. We consider every new position an opportunity for someone to join our work family or, for someone who is already part of it, to grow. Many of our company's leaders started in entry-level positions - if you ask Alan Lazowski (aka "Al LAZ") for his title, he won't tell you that he's the company's CEO; he'll tell you he is LAZ Parking's first valet!
Oh, and that part about our clients in our mission statement? Well, we believe in nurturing long-term relationships based on building trust and creating value for our clients and customers. Our formula is simple: step into the shoes of our clients and protect their best interests. More clients and more customers creates more opportunities for people to grow within (or join!) the LAZ family!
Our people-first mindset and service-focused philosophy differentiates us from other parking companies. LAZ Parking's continued growth, success and service to our clients are the result of living this mission. We call all of this "The LAZ Way" and it includes our mission, our values and our daily practices.
Putting Your Career in Drive: LAZ University
At LAZ, investing in our employees is one of our highest priorities. That's why we offer learning programs and even scholarships to help people grow both professionally and personally. Topics vary and include everything from leadership development, to health and wellness, to safety, to technology and we're adding courses so often that there is never a lack of learning opportunities for LAZ employees. Our online university includes 100+ on-demand cutting-edge, interactive courses and that number continues to grow.
Our library of learning choices also includes live video and in-person classes, leadership and management programs and even industry certifications, such as the Certified Parking Professional (CPP). Basically, if employees want to learn, we want to give them the chance to do it! In fact, every employee also has access to sign up for FREE career coaching with some of our highest level, most talented LAZ leaders.
LAZ University was rated #38 on ELearning Magazine's top 100 list of companies for e-learning in 2014.
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LAZ Connected
Benefits
We offer a very competitive benefits package for eligible employees that includes three medical plans and two dental plans, as well as options for vision, life, disability, accident and critical illness insurance. Our medical plans have benefits for acupuncture and some naturopathic care. There are also options to save pre-tax earnings in a health savings account, a flexible spending account and even a dependent care reimbursement account. In addition, in our 401(k) plan, LAZ matches 50% of the first 5% that employees contribute. That’s FREE money!
Employee Assistance Programs
Assistance is available FREE for all employees on a variety of topics, including caregiving, parenting, college planning, relocation and behavioral health problems (such as anxiety, depression, relationships, drug or alcohol issues, etc). Giving our employees the resources they need to live a full and happy life is one of our highest priorities.
Wellness and Nutrition Coaching
Our employees' health and wellbeing is so important that we have a dedicated Wellness Coach to support them! She has a master's degree in nutrition and is a certified wellness coach and, as such, provides private, one-to-one sessions to create programs to improve overall health, reduce stress, lose weight, manage disease, stop smoking and more. All of this is available for FREE to our employees and, in many cases, their families, too.
Discounts
As part of our partnership with Aetna, employees can take advantage of discounts on a variety of products and services such as massage, chiropractic care, exercise equipment, gym memberships, supplements and more. Discounts are available to anyone who is enrolled in one of our LAZ medical plans through Aetna.
Parking
Well, we are a parking company, right? In some locations, employees are offered FREE parking, which in many cities, can amount to huge savings.
Commuter Benefits
In some cities, commuters are able to save pre-tax earnings to cover the cost of commuting to/from work.
Parties, Events and More
As part of our fierce commitment to people, many of our locations offer employee lunches, holiday parties, summer picnics and lively "get connected" events and it's not unheard of for one (or ALL!) of our four founding partners (Al LAZ, Jeff Karp, Michael Harth and Mike Kuziak) to attend.
