Which of the following skills is vital for internal auditors when communicating with stakeholders?

Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential for internal auditors when engaging with stakeholders. Effective communication enables auditors to clearly articulate their findings, audit objectives, and recommendations. This clarity is crucial in fostering understanding and collaboration between auditors and stakeholders, which can include management, the board, and other departments within the organization.

In internal auditing, the ability to convey complex concepts in a straightforward manner is necessary to ensure that stakeholders comprehend the implications of audit results and recommendations. This helps in building trust and credibility, as stakeholders are more likely to act upon the recommendations when they understand the reasoning and context behind them.

While technical accounting skills and persuasion and negotiation abilities play a role in the auditing process, they do not replace the necessity of communication proficiency in interacting effectively with various stakeholders. Data entry skills, while potentially useful in certain contexts, are not directly relevant to the core interactions and functions of internal auditors when it comes to stakeholder communication.