What is the importance of happiness in the workplace?

Recently, I attended a workshop on POSITIVE LEADERSHIP. The facilitators offered many interesting statistics on the importance of positive outlook, happy thoughts, learned optimism, etc. Among references to several pieces of very compelling research, they mentioned that Tal Ben Sahar’s “Happiness” course, is THE most popular course at Harvard. 

Initially, I was not sure whether to be impressed or stunned. People have to go to Harvard to learn about Happiness? To seek a meaning for pleasure? These are no longer basic instincts?

When I read Tal Ben Sahar’s book, HAPPIER, however, I was very impressed with the fact that good common sense material was backed up by solid scientific evidence, which was founded on the principles of positive psychology. Tal Ben Sahar states that The Happiness Perception is about recognizing that happiness is the ultimate currency, the end toward which all other goals lead. 

It has been my innate belief that the quality of life improves when one is happy, and that people perform better when they are happy, but is there a discernible difference in going from Happy to Happier? Are happier employees simply nice-to-have, or is there is a direct correlation between the happiness level of employees and the company bottom-line? Can the benefits of increasing happiness be measured?”

Is there really such a thing as Return on Happiness?