By Alessandra Alonso. A very recent survey of senior HR professionals by City law firm Speechly Bircham and King's College London HRM Learning Board shows that there are three major HR challenges reported for 2010:  maintaining employee engagement (cited by 68% of respondents, up on 58% in last year's survey), followed by succession planning (cited by 53%) and talent management (cited by 42%). This shows the extent to which employers anticipate having to focus on managing high performers to ensure key talent is retained and organisational performance maximised. As the economy improves, and after a couple of years of 'keeping their head down', good people in organisations are expected to look outside their current role in search of new opportunities. Forward looking organisations will have foreseen this movement and continued to engage with their employees even when budgets would not stretch very far. But regardless of whether they did or not, in the coming years all organisations will be thinking about how to retain their workforce as poaching talented employees from your competitors makes a come back. After all, everyone knows how expensive and disruptive losing talent, expertise and knowldge can be to a business.  This is where Mentoring can REALLY help. In its simplest and perhaps purest form mentoring is about pairing two individuals on the grounds of one or more of the following reasons: skills, background, expertise and knowledge. Being chosen for a mentoring relationship tells the individual that the employer believes he/she is somebody worth investing in. The mentor - often somebody senior to the mentee - is giving up time to support that individual and the relationship offers both personal and professional development opportunities.  Through mentoring a business can spot and nurture the best talent, by enabling the mentee to think out of the box and proactively engage with the organisation. Through constructive feedback, the mentor raises the mentee's self-awareness and helps to capture precious learning. The mentoring relationship becomes a safe haven for the mentee where issues can be discussed without involving HR or a line manager. In a succession planning context, mentoring also enables the organisation to tap into senior managers' knowledge and transfer it to those groomed to take up leading roles.  Furthermore, mentoring relationships often take place across different departments/ areas enabling people to work more closely with each other and therefore increasing and improving communications, productivity and innovation. So, whatever your challenge this year - employee engagement, succession planning, talent management or all three - make mentoring a key component of your strategic solution and enjoy the long term rewards that come with maximising your existing talent pool.  If you have a mentoring query or wish to discuss a mentoring programme why not use our free 'ask the expert ' service...alternatively call us on + 44 (0) 207 3783414.