Want to enhance your benefits package to entice your top performers to hang around and lure new talent to your team? Offer them a half day’s work on Friday — it’s by far the No. 1 perk desired by employees.

This, at least, is what several thousand respondents to a CareerBuilder survey said. Constantly on the prowl for more information on job seekers, CareerBuilder learned that 21 percent of those surveyed have resolved to land a new job in 2016, up from 16 percent in last year’s survey. So what are these folks looking for in a new employer?

Some of the qualities employees on the hunt value can’t be changed on short notice. The five most important characteristics in a new employer — all of which outranked salary — were as follows:

  • Job stability: 65 percent

  • Affordable benefits: 59 percent

  • Location: 56 percent

  • Good boss: 51 percent

  • Good work culture: 46 percent

But when asked what perks would sway their decision to either accept or reject a job offer, the list included benefits that almost any employer could offer. The top five:

  • Half-day Fridays: 38 percent

  • On-site fitness center: 23 percent

  • Daily catered lunches: 22 percent

  • Massages: 18 percent

  • Being able to wear jeans: 16 percent

CareerBuilder also asked respondents what other New Year’s resolutions they’d made for 2016. The top five revealed that more money and better health were their top concerns:

  • Save more of my pay: 38 percent (vs. 42 percent last year)

  • Be less stressed: 28 percent (vs. 34 percent last year)

  • Get a raise or promotion: 26 percent (vs. 26 percent last year)

  • Eat healthier at work: 19 percent (vs. 25 percent last year)

  • Learn something new (take more courses, training, seminars): 17 percent (vs. 22 percent last year)

The goals were similar to those set last year at this time. Here’s how they did with regard to their promises to themselves:

  • Eat healthier at work: 13 percent

  • Be less stressed: 12 percent

  • Save more of my pay: 11 percent

  • Learn something new (take more courses, training, seminars): 9 percent

  • Perform better on the job: 8 percent

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.

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