You can use projection to select one element of object. Here is an example to retrieve only name of employee.

Example :

package net.roseindia.main;

import java.util.List;

import net.roseindia.table.Employee;
import net.roseindia.util.HibernateUtil;

import org.hibernate.Criteria;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.criterion.Projections;

public class CriteriaById{
    public static void main(String []args){
        SessionFactory sessionFactory=HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
        Session session=sessionFactory.openSession();
        Criteria criteria=session.createCriteria(Employee.class).setProjection(Projections.property("name"));
        List<String> employeeList = (List<String>)criteria.list();

        for(String employee: employeeList){
            System.out.println(employee);
        }
    }
}

Output :

Hibernate: select this_.name as y0_ from employee this_
Mandy
Som
Mandy
Roxi

If you want value under condition,you can add restriction.

Criteria criteria=session.createCriteria(Employee.class).add(Restrictions.eq("id",2)).setProjection(Projections.property("name"));

Output:

Hibernate: select this_.name as y0_ from employee this_ where this_.emp_id=?
Som